Aquaria Major
by ChrisDonati
Summary: Sequal to AOH. When an interesting proposition comes up regarding a shard of Celestra-86, which has now settled at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, Artemis Fowl can't help but investigate. But when things start to get complicated, not least because of the re-emergence of a certain Opal Koboi, Artemis may just have to pull off his greatest escape yet, or die trying.
1. Prologue

**AQUARIA MAJOR**

It was cold on Aquaria Major. Not that it was too much of a hindrance, but a set of heaters wouldn't have gone amiss when they drew up the plans for the base. Just one of the many small details that were annoying, such as the cupboards being too high and lighting system's aversion to not being on full power. But they were tolerable, especially compared to the feat of engineering it took to build the underwater complex in just 7 days. After the fragment of Celestra-86 had been discovered, Australian engineering company XTECH had petitioned to set up an exploratory research centre around the asteroid and begin experiments to determine any special properties that it may possess. As the asteroid sat at the bottom of international waters, it was left up to the UN to decide, and they had approved it on the condition that one of their representatives joined the expedition crew. What nobody had expected was XTECH to use this as an opportunity to test their revolutionary nano-particle build systems, and suddenly what was supposed to be a job that took 3 months was complete within the week. The 4 strong research team had already been chosen in that time, and they had left for the site immediately. Led by Project Manager Kostas Diagara, the team also contained Astrophysicist Charlie MulCair, Structural Engineer Kari van de Velt and Experimental Chemist Tori Scala-Jones. As part of the deal, UN delegate Tamala Stevens also joined them to keep an eye on proceedings. In the weeks they had been down there, not one thing had gone wrong that couldn't be fixed with a little duct tape, and they had made incredible progress on unlocking the secrets of Celestra-86. Unfortunately, that was all about to change...

In the light of her bedroom, Kari could just about see the jagged scar on her wrist. It was the same thing she always saw last when she pulled her jumper over her head, a constant reminder of how lucky she was to be alive. She had been 15 at the time, at school with her twin sister Scarlett when a former teacher, off his face on a cocktail of drugs, opened fire on her class. Kari had tried to hide behind a table but one of the bullets hit her as she dived for cover, shattering her wrist. Scarlett had been coming back from the toilets when it started, and on seeing the gunman had promptly knocked him cold in one strike. Even at 15 Scarlett's martial arts skills were beyond anything Kari had ever seen. She survived, but 6 of her classmates and their teacher were all killed, along with the janitor who had tried to stop the gunman before he reached the classroom. Now, every time Kari put on that jumper and saw the scar, she contemplated how close she had come to never making it home. Most days she would stay in a stationary state whilst she thought about it, shut off from the world, but the sudden blare of the sirens shattered her silence.  
"Oh come on" She snapped to herself, then pulled the mini radio off her belt. "Kostas, what the hell is going on?"  
"We've had some kind of breach inside the dock" Kostas replied in his thick, Greek accent. "Pressure sensors are off the chart."  
Kari sighed. As structural engineer, it was her job to check these things out. "Set my call sign to green, I'm on my way."  
Kari pulled the mini toolkit off her bed and made her way down the length of the base's interior skeleton to the dock at the opposite end. She met Kostas there.  
"Any water leaking into the dock?" Was her first question. Being underwater, that was only natural.  
"Not that we can tell" Kostas replied. "But something in there tripped the pressure alarm sensors so you best check it out to make sure."  
"My best first guess is a faulty sensor in that case. Should only take me 5 minutes to figure out the fault."  
"OK Kari, but make sure you keep in total radio contact."  
"Will do Kostas" She replied as the large blast doors to the dock opened slowly. Once they were the width of Kari and her toolbox, she slipped inside and Kostas sealed the door.  
"Well, nothing looks out of place at the moment. Where did the sensor ping?"  
"Over by the East perimeter wall" Kostas replied. Kari made her way over there, slowly at first but with nothing looking too out of place, she sped up until she reached the wall.  
"Kostas, we've got a problem."  
"A problem?" Kostas replied. "How serious?"  
"Very" Kari replied, dragging her hand along the wall, tracing the path of the large crack that had appeared. "I'm not surprised the alarm was triggered with a fissure this large. It's just about standing up to the water pressure outside but this is going to need a big rebuild. I'm going to follow it round, see where it started."  
"Roger that, but be quick Kari."  
Her radio now turned off, Kari started to trace the crack. Eventually she came to a turn in the wall, but when she turned her head away from the crack so that she didn't fall over anything, she recoiled in horror, falling to the ground. An involuntary scream left her mouth as she tried to stand back up.  
"KARI?" Kostas shouted down the radio. "KARI?" But she didn't answer. She just stared infront of her at the things that occupied the space. She didn't know what to call them, but they were nothing like she had seen before.  
"This can't be real" She whispered to herself, stumbling backwards. "Please tell me this isn't real." Then the unknown moved forward, and Kari's scream was the last thing anyone would hear from her before she was gone.

 **And so the journey begins! And we're already off to a dramatic start. But just how is this all going to piece together? Well, I suppose you're going to just have to wait and find out...**


	2. Phone Call From Hell

_**Aquaria Major**_ **is now in full swing. It's going to be one hell of a ride, I can tell you that. But the prologue was just a glimpse into the background of what is to come...**

 **72 HOURS LATER**

Holly felt like she hadn't slept for weeks. Not in a bad way, but it was Artemis' last day in Haven and she wanted to make it spectacular- after about 3 months away from his family, it was time he got back. At least, that was one of the reasons why her body felt like it was in limbo between having had 20 unfiltered coffees and pure exhaustion. The only problem was that she'd barely seen Artemis all morning; They were having breakfast at the moment, but in the couple of hours they'd been awake, Artemis had already received 2 phone calls and made another of his own. It wasn't too surprising then when his phone rang for a third time. Holly watched Artemis as he glanced down at the screen to look at the number. At first it looked as if he was going to ignore it, but then his expression changed. He grabbed the phone and ran off into the living room, mouthing 'Sorry' to Holly as he went. She took another bite of her toast and wondered what in Frond's name could be so important at 8 in the morning. She needed to be at work in an hour or so, so Holly got off the table and made her way into her room to change into her LEP uniform. As a part of stopping Flower Kevoor, a manic pixie who was intoxicated on a mixture of pure energy and revenge, her suspension had been lifted by Colonel Scar, and so for the past couple of months she had been back at Police Plaza, doing her duty as a Major in the Lower Elements Police. A lot can change in 2 months, however, and no change was bigger than the death of her commanding officer, Trouble Kelp. Nobody had been fully sure about how he had died until footage was recovered of him being hit in a 'drive by shooting'. Since then, Colonel Scar had taken over his position on a temporary basis until someone could be appointed permanently. Trouble may not have seen eye to eye with Artemis, at all, but he had still been a good commanding officer to her. In the month after his death, she'd spent most of it wishing the two of them had got along better. Artemis to his credit had accompanied her to Kelp's recycling ceremony. She just hoped she never had to do another one, she'd already lost too many friends.

Artemis almost hadn't accepted the call. He had devised a strict routine of only accepting calls from people in his contact list, lest one of his enemies ever get hold of his number. As this call was not a number that had been saved, he almost immediately rejected it, but then he remembered where he'd seen the number before. It wasn't in his contact list because he didn't want Holly to find it in there when she went through his phone, something she did regularly when she was bored.  
"Opal" Artemis said flatly, answering the phone.  
"So you did find my number after all!" Opal cackled. "I was almost worried you were going to ignore me and get on with your sickeningly sweet relationship and billionaire lifestyle."  
"You know I think I liked your clone better, at least she was vaguely nice."  
"Well that's the problem with a clone Artemis, they're never nearly as evil as you want them to be."  
"What do you want Opal?" Artemis asked, getting bored of Opal and her mocking tone very quickly. "I know you didn't give me your number for a social call."  
"Not that you'd know the meaning of social, mud boy" Opal shot back. "But you're correct, I'm not here to mock your inferiority. Not much, anyway."  
"Yes, inferiority. Because I haven't foiled your plans for world domination at all in the past, have I?"  
"You forget that I saved your precious girlfriend's life not too long ago, Artemis. I'd be careful what you say."  
"I think you'll find that all you did was pull the trigger. I'm the one that lured out Kevoor, and I'm the one that brought Holly back to life."  
"And you call me evil. I'm not the one playing god."  
Artemis didn't reply. Soon enough, Opal took that as a cue to get on with it.  
"You asked me why I called. The answer is simple- I want to cash in on my missed opportunity. Me and you, working together for once in our lives."  
"And you think I'd be able to trust you if we worked together?" Artemis replied sarcastically.  
"No, but you're going to have to decide whether it's worth the risk when I tell you what I have planned."  
"I'm listening."

Holly could hear Artemis speaking in the other room. She couldn't make out what was being said, as much as she wanted to. For a brief moment she thought about using the _mesmer_ on Arty and making him tell her, but she dismissed it with a smile, as entertaining as it would be. They had built up such a level of trust that Holly knew he would tell her eventually, whatever it was. That made what she was hiding even more difficult, but she had resolved with herself to tell Artemis before the end of the day, when he would be leaving Haven for a few months at least. If she left it that long, then there was the risk it could spiral out of control and destroy the both of them, so she had to tell him. She just wished he would stop getting so many damn phone calls so she could.

"3 months ago, a large natural event occurred in the reaches of the Earth's atmosphere. I don't need to tell you what that event was of course, because you're the one that predicted it was going to happen."  
"Naturally" Artemis said under his breath, but Opal still heard it all the same. He was pretty sure that, if they were face to face, Opal would probably have shot him by now just to shut him up, and loved that he wound her up so much. She deserved it, amongst other, more suitable punishments.  
"I'm going to ignore that. Again" Opal growled. "I am of course talking about the scientific wonder that was the Celestra crash. Whilst most of the asteroids were obliterated as everyone believed, there was one, rather large piece of Celestra-86 that survived the impact. That piece of rock is currently sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, approximately 500KM west of the Irish coastline. Of course, you mud men couldn't wait to see what wonders you could find locked inside that piece of space rock, so for the past 2 months a team of research scientists have been at the bottom of the ocean running every experimental test conceivable inside a station they decided to call _Aquaria Major_."  
"How do you know all of this?" Artemis asked. "I very much doubt you're one of the research crew. Though given your description of them, I'm sure you'd fit right in."  
"I like to keep myself informed when an event like this one occurs, just incase there's something there I can... profit from. And as it turns out, there is."  
"I would have said that you mesmerised one of the crew into giving you information, but you lost those powers when you decided to change your anatomy. I wonder who was the unfortunate fairy that had to do it on your behalf was?"  
"How I get my information is besides the point, Artemis" Opal said sharply. "What matters is what I know."  
"Then tell me what you know."  
"I know that the asteroid fragment contains a large volume of a very heavy metal, one that has yet to be discovered on this planet. Element 115."  
"Element 115 has been discovered" Artemis countered. "It just hasn't been officially recognised yet. Besides, the most stable isotope of 115 has a half life of just 220ms."  
"Valid points, but you're missing the bigger picture here Artemis. 115 may have been synthesised, but this is the first ever natural deposit to be found on the planet. And better yet, it is far more stable that anything created in a lab. Whilst they can only make isotopes up to _115-290_ , this deposit is made up entirely of _115-291_. It is a completely new isotope."  
"Impressive."  
"Oh I'm just getting started. One of the many things the crew at Aquaria Major found out about this new metal was that it has a half-life of just over 8 and a half years, making it far more stable. However, when it does decay, it doesn't do any of the normal methods. No, _115-291_ performs 3 simultaneous Alpha decays along with a single Beta decay."  
"But the _Beta-Triple-Alpha_ decay method is just a theory" Artemis said, and Opal laughed down the phone in response.  
"Not anymore it isn't, and that method of decay releases a lot of energy. Now, think what you could do if that energy was harnessed and stored. You could power millions of settlements above and below ground and you could create fuel for the entire United States military fleet along with that of the LEP for a millennium and still have over half the deposit left."  
"Or you could build a weapon."  
"Exactly" Opal replied. "And I am more than certain that there will be groups both above and below the surface more than willing to embrace this new technology. We could make a fortune."  
"There we go" Artemis said. "Now I know why you really called. Because you see this as a get rich quick scheme. What do you expect to do, just walk in and steal the metal from the lab?"  
"Oh no, it's going to be far easier than that. They worked out the properties of this metal weeks ago, but I didn't call you back then. I called you now, because the entire crew of Aquaria Major have disappeared."  
"Disappeared? Opal, don't mess with me or this conversation is over."  
"I'm not messing with you Artemis. They're all unaccounted for, and that means we really can just walk in and take the samples."  
Artemis sighed. "A few years ago, I would have agreed to this immediately. But this is not a scheme without consequences."  
"Artemis Fowl the changed man" Opal mocked. "I can tell you've been mentally calculating how much money you could make from this. You don't even have to do anything after we engineer the weapon, just watch as the money rolls in."  
"And leave you with enough radioactive material to create several WMDs? I would rethink your proposition if I were you Opal."  
There was silence down the other end of the phone. Artemis stared out of Holly's living room window, and wondered whether Opal would actually reply at all.

 **Doing a deal with the devil herself, Artemis Fowl style. Well, not quite yet. But soon...**


	3. Echo

The footsteps echoed throughout the empty corridors of Aquaria Major, sound bouncing off the walls and combining to create a hollow, unearthly noise. As nice as it was to have a research station all to himself, he wouldn't be here long. A plan had to be set in motion, one that would mean he had to be back on the surface soon enough. 'Oh well' he thought as he tapped in the keycode to the nerve centre of the base, he could still enjoy the next few hours at least. The last few hours of total freedom before the big event.


	4. A Deal With The Devil Herself

**I'm a day later than usual, but I was too busy yesterday getting famous (That's a lie, but I did have a blog article of mine get a rather high volume of attention, so I'll go with it). Anyway, onwards with the story.**

"OK Artemis, I'll make you a deal."  
"Good" Artemis replied. "I haven't been sitting through 5 minutes of your silence for my own entertainment."  
"Do you want to know what it is or not?"  
"Only if it's a deal worth listening to."  
"I won't take any of the samples. You will be in charge of the creation and manufacture of the weapon. In return, I get 70% of the profit."  
"70%? Seriously Opal, you expect Artemis Fowl to take just 30% of his business venture?"  
"You're already a billionaire Artemis- and don't try to tell me otherwise, I know that you don't disclose all of your business dealings and are worth a hell of a lot more than is public knowledge- the money means less to you than almost everyone else in this world. Besides, 30% will make you more than enough."  
"That may be true, but you would not have called me unless you needed me, and I am not taking just 30% from something I'd be putting most of the effort into. However, I see the merits of your proposition, and I'm willing to come to the same arrangement, but with a 60/40 split instead. You still have a majority profit and I'm more willing to participate, which is what you need."  
"I will go along with that Artemis. The base is located 60KM SSE of the Minara fault line's epicentre, right on the seabed, though you will have to enter from the surface. I expect you there as soon as possible."  
"Opal" Artemis said before she hung up. "Holly does not find out about this, or I will personally find you and kill you myself."  
"Not if she kills you first" Opal said between laughter, and hung up.

Since Artemis had been taking so long on the phone, Holly had thought that she might as well have another slice of toast before heading off to work. So it was of no surprise to her that Artemis finished on the phone as soon as she had but the bread in the toaster.  
"I need a ride" Was the first thing he said as he re-entered the kitchen.  
"Artemis I walk everywhere. I don't own any other method of transportation. Also why do you need a ride?"  
"I need to get down to police plaza."  
"Why in Haven would you need to be at Police Plaza? Not trying to stalk me again as I do my job are you?"  
"Holly, since when did I ever stalk you at your job?"  
"You scared an officer half to death because he found you in an air vent!"  
"I was checking how strong your security was. And judging by his reaction, I would say that you need an upgrade."  
"Artemis, stop changing the subject. Why do you need to go to PP?"  
"Technically you're the one that changed the subject Holly. And I have a meeting with Colonel Scar, though you'll find all of this out soon enough anyway."  
"Why do I not like the sound of this? Somehow I now doubt we'll get the evening I was planning before you go home."  
"We will, just on a different evening. One last adventure before I go home."  
"You said that when you built the C-Cube! Look how that turned out."  
"I think that particular episode went better than most we have together. It certainly ended better than anything we had afterwards, and neither of us died that time."  
"OK fine, now shall we get out of here before I'm late to work and you're late to your 'meeting?'" Holly said, grabbing her toast as it flew out the toaster, heading straight for the door.

Artemis and Holly chatted as usual as they made their way down to Police Plaza, but throughout the entire journey Artemis' expression stayed a weird combination of determined and almost happy. Holly knew that, somewhere inside that mud boy's brain, a plan was being formulated. She just didn't know what, but she would find out.  
"Can't you just tell me what you're meeting Colonel Scar about?"  
"Not until we finalise it and iron out a few issues. Like I said, you'll find out soon enough."  
"It's going to be dangerous, isn't it?"  
"Holly, every aspect of life is going to be dangerous one way or another, no matter what either of us do. 450 die annually in the United States of America from falling out of bed."  
"You're sidestepping the question" Holly responded. "Which means that it definitely is dangerous. And you're thinking of not taking me along, I can tell."  
"Well you are more than welcome to join me if you really want to Holly, though I can't promise it will be at all as interesting or dangerous as you seem to want it. I would have thought you would be very much against me going into any kind of danger, or taking you with me seeing as we've both run into a lot of trouble whilst doing these activities in the past."  
"Artemis, I'm a cop. Danger is what I do best; A normal life doing nothing would be boring compared to what I do. And if that includes danger, then so be it. Besides, I severely doubt I'm going to be able to change your mind about this and so I am not letting you out of my sight."  
"Touching" Artemis said nonchalantly, and the two continued their walk.

 **Secrets, secrets and more secrets. Artemis with his secret deal and secret meeting, Holly with a little secret of her own too. But secrets can't be held forever, can they?**


	5. Conference Call

**It's been a short while, I know, but I had a couple of very important deadlines so I decided to skip an upload date. But I'm on my Christmas break now, so we should continue back on track for the foreseeable future. On that note, looking through the chapters, I've realised that the upload scheduled for Christmas day is the titular chapter (Chapter 9: Aquaria Major), which is one of my favourite chapters of the first part of the story. Funny how these things work.**

Once they finally reached Police Plaza, Artemis was pulled straight into the main conference room by Colonel Scar, though not before having to practically swat Chix Verbil out of the way because he was too busy staring at the two of them. Everyone knew that Chix had once shouted through the plaza that he would happily fight the great Artemis Fowl for Holly's heart, to which Holly had rather proudly thrown a bowl of custard at his face. Now, every time he saw her with Artemis, Holly knew that he was scared she would do it again if he said anything. That, unfortunately, had turned into a rather tedious staring contest in which Chix would haplessly try to think of something to say that wouldn't get him hurt or humiliated, or both. In the brief moment before the frosted glass door was shut, Holly was sure she saw Foaly inside the conference room along with Colonel Scar. Wanting to know what Artemis was planning, Holly decided to stay around and see what happened before she went to her desk to start the endless volume of paperwork that came with being a Major. Unfortunately, that meant she had to put up with Chix, who, now Artemis was no longer by Holly's side, had finally found himself a voice. And here Holly had been thinking he was scared of her, not the mud man who was twice as tall as he was.  
"So Holly, my girl, how's the work going? I hear it's getting pretty hot there in the top ranks, budget cuts and all that. Girl like you might struggle to keep her lifestyle up- I know a guy that could fix you up, all courtesy of the Chixmeister of course."  
"Chix" Holly said, having to use some serious will power not to knock him out there and then. "Shut up before I replicate what that softnose laser did to your wing with my fist."  
"D'Arvit!" Chix swore, threw his hands up in the air, and stormed off.  
Fortunately at that moment the door to the conference room opened. Colonel Scar stepped out, along with Artemis and Foaly, then ushered Holly inside.

"What is this about?" Holly asked as she walked inside. She knew it was a stupid question, after all Artemis had told her that she would find out, but she still felt the need to ask anyway.  
"You'll see" Artemis said, taking his seat.  
Holly went to sit down too, but not before shooting Foaly a cursory glance. "You didn't tell him, did you?"  
"No Holly of course I didn't tell him" Foaly whispered his reply. "But sooner or later you are going to have to tell him yourself."  
"I know Foaly, I know. And I will."  
"Good. Now shut up and listen or you won't find out what's going on after all."  
With everyone now seated, Artemis stood up to address the table.  
"Colonel Scar and Foaly already know all of this" He started, "So this is entirely for your benefit Holly." An image suddenly appeared on the screen behind Artemis. "Do you know what this is?"  
"An asteroid" Holly replied, study the jagged piece of rock filling the screen.  
"Well, yes" Artemis said, almost sounding exasperated by Holly's answer. "But this is not just any asteroid. This is one of a set of 3 asteroids that collided in the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere not too long ago."  
"The Celestra Crash..."  
"Indeed. Holly, I would like you to meet Celestra-86, or at least what is left of it. Whilst we had initially believed the 3 asteroids had obliterated each other, it turns out this section of 86 survived, and it is now sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean."  
"You want us to go and retrieve it?" Holly asked, but Artemis shook his head.  
"It would be too much effort to remove an entire asteroid fragment from the depths of the Atlantic. Fortunately for us, somebody decided to go down there anyway and build a research centre around it. Even more fortunate for us was what they found."  
"What was it?"  
"A brand new radioactive metal!" Foaly said rather too excitedly. Seeing the looks of Artemis and Holly, he sank back into his chair and promptly shut up.  
"Foaly is right." Artemis continued. "Whilst trying to see what this asteroid was made of, they discovered a semi-stable heavy metal, heavier than most things on the periodic table and by far the heaviest naturally occurring element ever seen on this planet."  
"Which would make sense considering it didn't actually come from Earth in the first place" Foaly said, then sank even further into his chair when he saw Artemis' look of annoyance. Soon he would be under the table if he didn't stop talking, Holly thought.  
"This new metal could be of significant use for the LEP, and for Haven in general. That is why I decided to lead an expedition to the asteroid crash site to take some samples for ourselves. They're still trying to run a second set of tests to verify what they've found, so right now nobody else is aware of what they've found. See Holly, it's nothing nearly as interesting or dangerous as you would like."  
"I still want to go." Holly said, sensing Artemis had finished.  
"Good" Colonel Scar said. It was the first thing Holly had heard him say since she'd entered the room. "Because I want you to go. If I didn't want you to go then you would never have been a part of this meeting, due to its top secret nature."  
Holly laughed. Guess she didn't have a choice if she went now after all. "Why me?" She asked Colonel Scar. "There's an entire team of LEP officers that would be well suited to this."  
"Because you're my best damn officer and I'm going to use you in the most important missions. I know you want to go so you can be with Artemis, but this mission is not to be laughed at. Only 5 people know this is happening, including the 4 of us in this room, and nobody else ever will. We have no idea what this metal may or may not be capable of doing, which is why we must acquire those samples and test them before anyone else figures out they exist and they might be able to make a weapon out of them."  
Holly understood what Colonel Scar was saying, but a question suddenly popped into her head. "Who's the 5th person?"  
"I'm glad you asked" Artemis said. "Butler."  
"I should have guessed that, shouldn't I?" Holly said rhetorically. Artemis almost went to answer before he realised.  
"If we're done here" Colonel Scar said, standing up. "Then I'd like to get this mission started as soon as possible. Foaly can kit you both up with what you need, and Artemis' bodyguard is already on the surface making arrangements, so you shouldn't have any problems. In and out ASAP, understood?"  
"Understood Sir" Holly replied. Time to get to work.


	6. Return To The Surface

**I must be the most inconsistent person ever with upload schedules. Ah well, you'll get over it.**

Foaly ushered the two of them into his office, the proverbial temple of technology. It had somehow managed to get even more crammed since Holly had last been in it a few weeks ago, but then it was no secret that, after the episode with Flower Kevoor, Foaly had been given a lot of extra assignments by Commander Kelp. When he was killed, Colonel Scar had given Foaly a few more projects to do, though nowhere nearly as many. Instead, these projects were more complex and elaborate than ever before. Even for a world where fairies exist, Colonel Scar's ideas formed a perfect explanation of left field thinking. They weren't the only things Foaly was working on however. There was still the small matter of building a fully tested and completed BrainWave Regeneration Device, which had now been rather crudely nicknamed 'Project Coral' after the end goal. Despite the fact the first prototype had worked well enough to bring Holly back from the dead, animating a manufactured clone was suitably trickier, and so all attempts had so far failed. On his current predictions, Foaly had told Holly it might take anywhere up to 6 months to get the device working correctly.  
"It's nice to see you've moved out of the 1950's Foaly" Artemis commented. "It's just a shame that you decided to move into the 1930's instead." Holly watched him walk over and pick up a radio transmitter off the table. "Infact, I think this might actually have come from the 1930's."  
"I know you like to think of yourself as a History expert Artemis, but remember I was actually alive in the 1930's- Come to think of it, so was Holly- so I would know when my equipment originated from." He took a pause before adding "1948."  
"Stop it Foaly, you're making me feel old" Holly said, and the 3 of them shared a brief laugh, but then it was down to work. First job was to give them tracking implants. As much as Holly was expecting some kind of computer chip, it turned out to be a blue solvent that was injected into both her and Artemis' bloodstreams. Foaly promised that it would be out of their systems within a month, and that it was only there incase their suits were disabled. Holly's suit was the one she always took into battle, fitted with every last bit of technology Foaly could find. Artemis' was very similar to Holly's, but light blue in colour, whereas hers was an emerald green.  
"You're seriously going to send me down there in this?" Artemis asked, raising an eyebrow.  
"Yes Artemis, I am. And don't think about complaining."  
"Foaly, I know how proud you are of the Static Shock Suit, but what possible use is it going to be on a retrieval mission?"  
"You never know" Foaly, replied, slapping Artemis on the back. He began to usher both Holly and Artemis out of his office. "Butler already has everything else that you need on the surface. If you don't mind, I'm now going to try and update my inventions so that they fit a more suitable era. The 1960's."

The rest of the day was fairly straightforward for Holly. Now packed with enough power to flatten half of Haven if she were to somehow combust- At least, that's how Foaly had described it- both Artemis and herself had been fast-tracked to chute E1, where they took a private shuttle to the Irish landmark of Tara, or fairy central if you happened to stumble upon the area during a full moon. The chute hadn't been named E1 for nothing- it was the first, original fairy chute to the surface. As the centre of all things magical, it was particularly popular with the elves and sprites close to their spirituality. When there was a full moon, every fairy hippie could be found dancing under the stars, high on the magic energy that permeated the atmosphere. For Holly, however, it would not be a full moon- or any moon at all- and the only people that might be at Tara were the terminal staff and the odd fairy that happened to have been granted a visa, more than likely after having to wait 20 years for it.  
"We're approaching the dock Artemis" Holly said from the pilot's seat. Private shuttle or not, Holly was a pilot at heart and anything that could fly was her kind of machine.  
"Good" Artemis replied, his face even whiter than it usually was- which may or may not have had something to do with Holly disabling the shuttle's power limiter and flooring it for a good 15 minutes. "Very... Very good."  
"Oh come on, you can't tell me that wasn't fun."  
"I think me and you have a very different definition of fun for most activities, and you already know how I feel about shuttle rides at increased velocities."  
"Most activities? And for what activities would we share the same definition of fun then, Arty?" Holly tried to keep a straight face despite the exaggerated suggestiveness in her voice, but the look of horror plastered over Artemis' meant she couldn't help but crack up.  
"Funny, Holly. You really managed to convince me" He replied sarcastically.  
"Oh come on, lighten up. From the look on your face you'd think I'd just told you science is a lie. And you can make that expression all you want, we both know what you're like once we get down to it."  
"Why do I not like where this conversation is heading?" Artemis asked himself, but before Holly could reply, an electronic voice interrupted.  
"Docking procedure complete. Please exit the vehicle to your right hand side. Welcome to Tara."  
"Saved by the shuttle announcer. Now that is a new one."

Tara was practically deserted, which meant that Holly and Artemis were processed at record speed. Though that may have had as much to do with the unfortunate gnome on security duty being so scared of Artemis that she wanted to get them out of there as soon as possible. Either way, they were out of the terminal in 5 minutes flat. Unfortunately, it was raining outside, and neither of them had the foresight to take an umbrella, or bring a torch for that matter. Holly surveyed the area- most of the space around the terminal was grassy farmland, but there was a stretch of concrete that doubled as a road off to the east. Sitting on that stretch of concrete was a black Mercedes E-Class, with full blackout tinted windows and a pair of 'dark headlights', which Artemis had developed. When turned on, the dark headlights emitted a black light, further obscuring the view for anyone infront or behind. It would have been a concerning sight for Holly if she didn't already know who would be behind the wheel. It would be even harder to under the pitch black night sky.  
"Shall we?" Artemis asked, holding out his hand. She gladly took it, and walked through the field towards the waiting car. As soon as they reached it, the door flew open by itself, and they climbed inside.  
"Someone forgot to give me a weather forecast" Artemis said as the car set in motion.  
"Someone should have asked for it in the first place. Not to worry though, the humidity extractor will soon have you both dry." Butler replied from the driver's seat.  
"It's nice to see you again Butler." Holly added. "I take it you're coming with us."  
"Absolutely. I didn't much like being apart from Artemis these past months, so I'm not going to let him walk into this without me."  
"You do know that I'm the same car as the two of you, don't you? I could more than handle this by myself."  
"Until you have to persuade someone to either give you something or not kill you. Usually it's easier to accomplish that with me there, I have found."  
"I do not doubt you have your uses Butler, but I would like to think I'm capable of handling myself in dangerous situations. I have proved that in the past."  
"Yes, and you only died once in the process" Holly decided to add, but then realised it probably wasn't the best card to play.  
"And how many times have you died?"  
"3, but that's not the point. It's in my job description."  
"Except most other fairies die just the once." Artemis turned back to Butler. "I do hope you know I mean these in a light-hearted manner Butler, you are a unique man of many talents which I could not do without. You are the perfect right-hand man for every evil genius."  
"Evil my ass" Holly whispered. Butler laughed up in the driver's seat, but at Artemis' comment, not hers.  
"Artemis, I have been with you your entire life. I think I would be more concerned if you started giving me endless compliments and stopped giving me orders."  
At this point, Holly decided to change the subject. "Where are we actually going?"  
"I wondered if you would ask" Butler replied. "Artemis already knows, of course, but he's never been one for sharing things."  
"Again, I'm still in the car" Artemis interjected, but Butler ignored him.  
"We're heading towards a small port on the west coast. It is wonderfully named 'Vision of the Tempest'. That is what it translates into, anyway. There will be a class 8 powerboat waiting for us at the port, and we will head towards the site of Aquaria Major, 500KM away."  
"Vision of the Tempest" Artemis mused. "I have to say Butler, you always seem to choose the most aptly named places for our adventures." He looked out of the window to the ever increasing rainfall. "I would expect you've managed to do it again."

 **And so the adventure has well and truly begun. But what secrets are waiting to be found inside the wonder that is Aquaria Major? Well, you'll just have to wait and find out...**


	7. Boats N Hoes

**There is no reason for this chapter title other than the fact I wanted to call a chapter 'Boats N Hoes'. I mean I suppose there is a boat in it.**

The rainfall continued to increase as they drove towards the port, but what Holly hadn't expected was the flash of lighting followed by the rumble of thunder more akin to one of her nightmares that reality. As they got closer and closer to their destination, however, they seemed to start leaving the storm behind. Eventually they reached their destination, a small but well manned port housed in what Holly could only describe as 'The middle of nowhere'. There was one road that led in and out, but a surprising number of people working under what was now a rather blue sky. Due to the horrific level of traffic they had found themselves in, it had taken nearly 6 hours to reach the port from Tara. Holly couldn't help but think of the irony that, despite having travelled for around 8 hours since 9 in the morning, Haven time, it was still morning in Ireland. Infact, it was only 7am.  
"How long is it going to take us to get to Aquaria Major?" Holly asked Butler.  
"Depends mainly on the weather conditions. If we can keep this storm behind us, then it shouldn't take any more than 6 hours, hopefully closer to 5."  
"Does everyone know the plan?" Artemis asked before they exited the car.  
"We reach Aquaria Major and head to ground zero, 3000M underwater. Once down there, we locate and retrieve the samples, then we make our way out of the base, back to Ireland and then ultimately to Haven. In and out."  
"Sounds good to me" Holly said.  
"Holly" Butler turned to her. "You might want to shield for this part, there are a lot of people around."  
"Of course" She replied, activating her shield. Not that it was actually a shield, but she vibrated at such a frequency that any passersby would just see a haze. To everyone around, it would look as if Artemis and Butler were the only two people boarding the boat.  
"Good morning Stanley" Butler said to the elderly dock guard, who was stood infront of the jetty their boat was moored to.  
"Good morning Mr Butler sir, Master Artemis" Stanley replied. "I have the boat here as you ordered. Class 8, all the gadgets. It's not the top of the line model but it's the best I could do in the time span."  
"We are most grateful Stanley" Artemis replied, stuffing a roll of 50 Euro notes into the guard's jacket pocket.  
"Have a good journey the both of you, and bring make sure you bring my boat back in one piece."  
Butler saluted Stanley as he let them pass through. They made their way to the end of the jetty, and onto the boat. Now inside, Holly could deactivate her shield.  
"Excellent" Artemis said. "Let's get this show on the road."

Despite all the time Holly had spent around Artemis, she was still amazed by what a large sum of money could buy you. The boat they were on was fairly small, but what it lacked in size it more than made up for in luxury. Holly could certainly see this being a 3 man party boat on a regular day out. Along with a 108" LCD TV, there was also a minibar, gym room, neon lighting and enough diamonds studded around the walls to fill a small jewellers. That was just what Holly had found so far. Artemis could obviously see how star struck she was, because he wrapped his arm around her to bring her out of the trance.  
"Welcome to your first boat ride with Artemis Fowl" He said.  
"This boat is incredible, Artemis. I've never seen anything like it."  
"I suppose you never have been on one of my boats before. I've shown you the cars and the aircraft, now I get to show you the boats. Technically this isn't mine, but it's amazing what 10,000 Euros can rent you at short notice."  
"Let's just hope it goes as well as Stanley told me it does" Butler shouted from the front of the boat. He had been busy doing pre-sail tests on the motor systems, the specifications of which were not to be laughed at. A 1080bhp total set of 6 twin-supercharged outboard motors provided the power to the boat, which weighed half of what a boat of that size usually would, thanks to the carbon-fibre and Aluminium moulded design. It wasn't a boat for the faint-hearted.  
"It looks as if the storm is changing direction, so we should miss it. I put us at the Aquaria Major research site in a little under 5 and a half hours. Just in time to raid the lab fridges for some lunch."  
"I have a question" Holly said, herself and Artemis having moved up beside Butler. "How come you both know so much about this crash site? Some of the details in your plan are very specific." She pointed to Artemis, "Especially when you were saying that nobody else knew about this metal. If nobody else knew, how did you?"  
"That would be down to me" Butler said. "One of the research scientists who has gone down to study Celestra-86 is a contact of mine. He is well aware of Artemis' hunger for scientific revolution, so sent me a message about the findings, along with an invitation for Artemis and 'his associates' to take a look themselves, to see what he could deduce about them. After making sure the message was genuine, I called Artemis to tell him. Then this plan was devised."  
"I stay friends with The People by giving the LEP some of the samples, and get my scientific revolution by studying some myself" Artemis added. "If this metal is what they think it is, then it will be a game changer in a great number of fields, not least nuclear technology."  
"When did they find this out?"  
"At least 3 weeks ago, but they had to have more equipment sent down to them while they tried to figure out the properties of the metal. I suspect they've only scratched the surface, hence why they haven't yet verified anything."  
"Interesting" Holly said to herself. "I would have thought Foaly might have found out about this somehow before now. He's always gloating every time he makes a scientific discovery before Artemis."  
"I expect his large workload may have something to do with that" Artemis offered. "Between finishing the late Trouble Kelp's many projects and attempting those set by the enigmatic Julian Scar, he doesn't have time to make any more scientific discoveries. Did you know Colonel Scar is tasking him with making a proton ray gun? Aside from being very difficult to create a focused proton beam in the first place, it's nearly impossible to make one last for more than half a second without the entire device combusting. It almost makes me want to develop one myself, to create the technology before he can-"  
"OK Artemis" Holly cut him off, "That's more than enough science for one year, let alone one day."  
Outside, a green light went on beside the jetty. Butler saw the signal and rammed the initialization power level into 'Full Max'. The outboard motors screamed into life and the boat shot forward in a swirling vortex of foamy water. After flicking on set of switches into their 'on' positions, the 'damping' light changed from orange to green, the boat steadied, and they were on their way.


	8. Lost In Dreamland

**I'M ON TIME FOR ONCE**

The water was calm whilst they exited the Irish coastline, but as soon as they were into open water and able to go full throttle, the wind decided to pick up and the water became choppy. The storm was still behind them, however, so they were going to avoid the worst of it.  
"We're going to have to push back our time of arrival by about 20 minutes given this weather" Butler said from upfront, handling the boat like a pro. "It's going to be a long journey, you two should probably get some rest before we reach the station."  
To Holly, that didn't sound like a bad idea. "I agree. Do you know where the bedrooms are?"  
"Ah" Butler said, looking to the ceiling as he tried to find the words. "About that. I'm afraid this boat contains just the one bedroom, and just the one bed. I did have to acquire it at short notice and this was the best I could find."  
Holly laughed quietly. Butler well knew that Holly and Artemis didn't regularly share a bed together, but the fact he almost seemed concerned that there was only one bed onboard the boat was rather touching. "I wouldn't worry Butler, there are many worse things that could have gone wrong."  
"I hope you don't mind."  
"Oh Butler old friend" Artemis chimed in. "It is but a minor issue. Sure, I am used to having a bed to myself but that has more to do with Holly being paranoid I'm going to roll over in my sleep and crush her than anything else."  
"Hey!" Holly exclaimed. "You're not the 3ft tall elf here mud boy! My bed isn't that big, either. I doubt it would be able to hold your elongated frame."  
"You could have joined me in the other room" Artemis offered. "The bed in there was bigger after all."  
"I was not spending your vacation in my spare bedroom. I like my bed."  
Artemis turned to Butler. "I think we'll be able to manage. You see to the boat, we'll get some rest."

Despite there being just the one bedroom, it was rather large, especially for a boat. The bed, being a double bed, would be more than big enough to fit the two of them in and there was even space for the crate of bottled water Artemis had somehow smuggled onboard. At least, thought Holly, she wasn't the only person who didn't want to use the minibar. As the water died down some 35KM after they had set off, the boat entered a floating rhythm, a trance that was lulling Holly into a false sleep. She knew that Artemis, who was laid beside her, definitely wasn't asleep, but if the rocking motions continued, she soon would be. Reality and imagination seemed to continuously blend into one as she drifted in and out of semi-consciousness. She pictured the stars above her, circling a dark horizon, being sucked into the eternal void. The sea waves crashed around her, both hot and cold but electrifying all the same. She pictured the future- her future. She saw what had been, what was currently bring and what could be, if she chose the right paths. She saw herself and Artemis, a relationship forged in battle that could never be broken. Or could it? Because, no matter what she saw, there was always something in the back of her mind, a voice that was telling her something she knew but kept pushing away. Something that could diverge the paths of their future. Something that, on the surface seemed so insignificant, but could cause devastating damage beneath the surface. No, Holly kept telling herself, there was nothing that could break them apart. And she was going to tell him.  
"What are you thinking about?" Artemis asked, pulling Holly out of her trance and into the real world. Holly realised she had been tensing her muscles, and relaxed back into the bed.  
"Life" She managed to whisper. "Just life."  
"Well you certainly have an intense relationship with life" Artemis said. "From the way you were tensing up I was almost worried you were going to start convulsing."  
"I suppose that's what happens when you get lost in your thoughts."  
"Anything in particular keeping your mind active?"  
Holly hesitated, and she knew that Artemis caught onto it, so she didn't say anything. She didn't have to because Artemis already knew something was wrong.  
"I've seen that expression before" He said, sitting up. Holly automatically sat up with him.  
"You have?"  
"Yes I have, because I was the one making it every time I was debating whether or not to tell you about the BWRD. Every time you asked and I wanted to tell you, I wanted you to know, but it never felt like the right time. Either I wasn't convinced that it was at all possible or we were too busy fighting Flower Kevoor, or it just didn't feel right. And each time I saw you upset because you found something that reminded you about your mother, I wanted to tell you exactly what I had planned, but everything is about timing. And I can see that there's something turning around in your head. Either something has happened or you've thought of something that you want to tell me, but it never seems like the right time. Correct?"  
Holly nodded along slowly. "Yeah Artemis" She said, not knowing how to express herself in the situation.  
"I could tell that you knew I wanted to tell you something, but you gave me time to figure out how to express it, and so I am going to afford you the same time and space to figure out whatever it is you need to express, and let you express it in your own way. You'll know when the time comes say it, and I want you to know that, whatever it is, and however daunting it may seem to you, I am going to be right here, by your side as I always am. I didn't bring you back to life for nothing."  
"Are you always going to bring that up?" Holly asked, shooting back to her energized state. "Do remember that I brought you back to life and one point too."  
"I feel that was more out of necessity than anything else" Artemis teased. "If I were dead, who would be able to provide the plans to defeat our mortal enemies and come out of here unscathed?"  
"Hey, I held up perfectly fine before you attempted to kidnap me, Artemis."  
"One- It was not attempted, I did kidnap you and I got away with a surprising amount of gold too, though I have to say I've probably given all of that back to The People during the time I've been in Haven. Two- I seem to recall that the only reason you were captured in the first place was because you hadn't performed the ritual in 4 years and had next to zero magic. Root was about to set fire to your wings he was so unhappy."  
Holly smiled to herself at the thought of Julius Root blowing a gasket every time someone screwed up, herself included. Then she turned to Artemis, and saw him looking at her as he so often did.  
"Now, Holly, to sleep. You need your rest. And, this time, don't let your thoughts take over."  
"Thank you, Artemis" She responded, and closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift off into the eternal void once more.

The rest of the journey passed dreamlessly for Holly, who was too exhausted to try and create herself an alternate fantasy. Talking to Artemis had calmed her to the point where she realised just how tired she actually was. As sure as she was that she could have slept forever, a large thud beside her had woken her up. Danger sensors on autopilot, she scanned the bedroom for threats, and that's when she saw the pillow fly through the air and catch a still sleeping Artemis square in the face.  
"Artemis wake up, we're here" Butler said from behind them in his deep, booming voice. Artemis stirred, looking straight at his bodyguard through half opened eyes.  
"Butler? Butler is that you?"  
"Yes, it's me Artemis" He replied, throwing another pillow at him. Aim impeccable, it once again hit him square in the face. This time, Artemis shot up.  
"We're here, aren't we?" He asked sharply. Taking Butler's sly nod to be a 'yes', he jumped out of bed and began gathering a set of electronic devices together. All in all there were about 6 pieces to the set, all small enough to fit on Artemis' custom toolbelt. If anything looked out of place on Artemis, it was a toolbelt, but he had that to go along with Foaly's custom suit. Butler wasn't wearing any kind of protective clothing, not that Holly thought he ever had.  
"We need to proceed to elevator number 5" Artemis said. "It's located on the west side of the surface platform." There was a steely determination in his voice, like he had been preparing for this moment his entire life. "If we're all ready here, I'd like to get this exploration underway."  
Neither Holly nor Butler had any complaint, and so Artemis led them out of the bedroom and onto the boat's deck.  
"Do you want me to shield?" Holly asked as they stepped outside.  
"No point, there's nobody around on the surface." Artemis indicated towards the large expanse of concrete that spanned the ocean next to them. Butler had docked the boat in one of the holding pens, but that made up just a small part of the upper level. Though it looked rather out of place in the middle of the ocean, the flat, grey square did the job it was supposed to. It afforded a way in, it allowed for supplies to be dropped off without anyone else having to go below sea level, and it allowed easy access for any helicopters, usually containing new equipment, to land. The more Holly looked at it, the more it just seemed to be a platform floating on top of the water. If she hadn't known, she would never have guessed that it contained an entire underwater laboratory at the bottom of the ocean.  
"What about when we reach the actual lab?"  
"That depends on who we find."  
Artemis really could be vague at times, Holly thought to herself. But, that was who he was, and she knew that is who he would continue to be. As he stepped off the boat and onto the large platform, Butler beside him, Holly couldn't help but get the feeling that this mission wasn't going to be as straightforward as they hoped it would. With them, it rarely was.

 **And so, here we are. The wonders of Aquaria Major await...**


	9. Aquaria Major

**Merry Christmas! (It's still technically Christmas). Here we have one of my favourite chapters from the early part of the story, the title chapter itself.**

Finding elevator number 5 had been a pretty straightforward task. Not only was it the closest of the 6 elevators to where they had been docked, but the locations had even been signposted through a set of yellow painted arrows and diagrams, no doubt done by the research team themselves to help aid anybody who had to find something on the platform. What had surprised Holly was how the elevator actually worked- as they were as far up as you could go, the first part to the elevator was actually a chute down into a sub basement level just below the platform, where the elevator was housed.  
"Interesting dynamic" Artemis commented. "Most unusual design."  
"Don't we have samples to be collecting, Artemis?" Holly said, "You can admire the mechanisms of the lab once we've finished what we came here to do. I swear you get so easily distracted."  
Artemis wanted to reply, but Butler cut in first. "I have a point to raise. How are we supposed to get back up once we've finished?"  
"That, Butler, is a very good question. I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out once we've collected the samples." Artemis replied to his bodyguard. Stepping infront of Holly, he placed his palm on the large, green button besides the lift shaft, and pushed it, hard, but it wouldn't budge.  
"I don't believe this elevator is used often" He commented, then tried again, but still nothing. He coiled himself back, but before he could really put any effort into it, Holly caught him on the shoulder, holding him back.  
"Remember what happened last time you attempted something like that?" She said. Artemis reluctantly conceded, leaving Butler to do the honours. With one great swing, the giant Eurasian's fist hit the button so hard the green paint shattered, and the button was forced so far into its housing, it didn't come back out. The quiet whirr of the elevator starting up was the only sign the entire unit was still working.  
"Well, at least there are 5 other elevators in this place."  
"Sorry Artemis" Butler apologised, but Artemis waved it away. If anything, he was looked impressed with how far the button actually went inside its housing. Soon enough, just to ally all their fears, the elevator reached the top, and opened up. It was hardly the most luxurious metal box Holly was ever likely to spend time in, but they didn't come here to be pampered. Artemis hit the button right at the bottom of the elevator's panel, titled '-3000'. All the way down.

The elevator was slower than Holly had expected, and getting to the bottom of the ocean was no quick task in the first place. But it did lead to opportunity- with the elevator having glass walls, it meant Holly could see into the deep blue as they made their descent, and allowed her to marvel at nature as it swam past, around and underneath her. At one point an octopus had attached itself to the glass, which had, much to Holly's amusement, scared Artemis half to death. A few quick bangs on the glass by Butler ensured the creature left the area fairly quickly. Soon, however, the light began to fade, and the features of the water became less and less clear. Just as the world became pitch black, an eerie glow began to illuminate them. Holly could only stand and stare as the jagged rock formation emerged from below them, filling the view. They were so close to it that Holly could make out all of the details- rivers of unearthly turquoise ran through the very spine of the structure, while craters seemed in a greater abundance than actual rock. It not only looked alien, but it felt alien too. Holly put her hand up to the glass and felt a tangible prickling sensation in her fingers.  
"That's the asteroid, isn't it? That's Celestra-86."  
"It is indeed" Artemis said, standing closer to Holly, who seemed almost hypnotised by the grand meteorite.  
"Can you feel it too?" Holly asked, moving her arm across the elevator wall. If her hairs weren't being crushed by her suit, she was almost sure they would be on end.  
"Yes, I can" Artemis replied, and Holly felt a rush of satisfaction, but then he added "It's radiation. And if this elevator decides it's going to go any slower, there might just be enough of it around to kill us."  
"Cheery as always Artemis" Butler replied. "But I don't think a little radiation is going to be able to stop me."  
"Not you I'm worried about, nor myself for that matter, but I would very much like to get Holly out of this lift shaft before it has a chance to do any real damage."  
Holly, who was too entranced by Celestra-86 to pay full attention, hadn't realised fully what Artemis had said. If she had, she might have had a different set of thoughts.  
"What makes it glow turquoise? It's beautiful."  
"Silurium Ore most likely. A combination of naturally occurring heavy metals- namely Iridium, Barium and Polonium- locked inside a Nitro-crystalline ore and mixed with other wonderful stuff. Whilst some chemical reactions give off heat, the reaction of Silurium ore and water gives off light, in this rather unusual luminous hue."  
"Thank you Albert Einstein" Holly replied. Suddenly the elevator shuddered to a stop, almost throwing everyone off their feet. It would seem the elevator had been moving faster than they had all thought it had.

"We're here" Butler said, hauling apart the elevator doors, which had only partially opened. He was the first out, followed by Artemis and the Holly at the rear. What they were met with was a long, silver corridor, which not only seemed to go on forever, but also looked like it didn't lead to anywhere. The first thing Artemis did was place a small golden device onto the wall, which almost seemed to melt into it.  
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Holly asked.  
"I'm sure" Artemis replied as he began walking. "This is definitely the right place. We couldn't exactly go in through the front door, could we?"  
"Point made" Holly said. She watched Artemis' reflection as it bounced of the silver walls, the curved shape distorting and bending it into extraordinary shapes. The silver wall only covered one wall and the ceiling, however, because the other wall was left entirely transparent, just like the lift. Holly supposed that was so the scientists could observe the asteroid as they walked down the corridors.  
"How come I can't feel the asteroid anymore?" She asked. "I can see it just as well, but not feel it like I did in the elevator."  
"Anti-radiation shielding" Artemis replied. "This entire base is lined with an anti-radiation deflector shield, to stop everyone from irradiated by the asteroid. There are some powerful radiometals in that asteroid, but the lift shaft was likely not deemed worthy enough to protect. The scientists are going to be spending their entire time down here, so I suppose it was decided that a couple of trips in the elevator for the delivery personnel was not going to be a problem."  
"Well it's nice to know I'm safe now."  
"Safe" Artemis said as he walked ahead of them, "Is not exactly the word I would use."

 _ **"Safe" Artemis said as he walked ahead of them, "Is not exactly the word I would use."**_


	10. Search And Secure

**I've begun to ramp up work on the 4th instalment of this series, though I won't do anything major until after my January exams. I'm genuinely excited for the next story, it's something completely different to this or the ones that have gone before it. Anyway...**

The walk down the endless corridor didn't last long, and soon they had turned off through what Holly thought of as a graveyard for technology. All kinds of experimental devices were stacked high in boxes, never to be used again; The crew of Aquaria Major hadn't even been there that long, and yet already there was thousands of whichever currency you cared for sitting around gathering dust. Artemis couldn't resist taking a few things himself, stuffing them into whatever pockets he could find. Soon they came to their first locked door- not to be deterred, Artemis pulled one of the small, cylindrical shaped objects off his toolbelt and stuck it to the door lock.  
"I would stand back at this point" He said, and everyone took a precautionary step back. A few seconds later, it exploded in a flash of sparks and a cloud of red smoke, and the door swung open.  
"Red smoke Artemis" Holly said, "Was that really necessary?"  
"No, but I did it anyway" He replied. Now the three of them were faced with a fork in the path. One of them led left, and one right. Artemis pondered which one to go down for a few seconds before reaching for his pocket.  
"The great Artemis Fowl, lost" Holly said quietly to herself, but Butler heard and laughed, which alerted the teenage genius himself.  
"Am I amusing everyone?" He addressed Holly and Butler.  
"Yes, actually" Holly replied. "I don't think you've ever seemed this unsure about where to go in your life."  
"Says the elf who once piloted a pod bound for Paris to a shuttle station in the Sahara desert, 4 hours later than they were supposed to arrive."  
"I was young" Holly said, very much now regretting telling Artemis that tale one night when they were swapping stories. "You've been a genius all your life. What's your excuse?"  
"You're right Holly, I am a genius" Artemis said, withdrawing his hand from his pocket. "Which is why I had the foresight to being a map with me."  
"D'Arvit. Where in Frond's name did you get a map for this place?"  
Artemis frowned at Holly swearing, then pointed at Butler, who gave a sly smile. "We go left" He said, once he'd studied the map for a brief second.  
"OK" Holly replied, "But I swear to Frond Artemis Fowl II, if we end up going the wrong way I am never going to let you forget this."

The rest of their journey through the vast expanse that was Aquaria Major passed without any further delays, and soon they found themselves at the very rear of the base, where the main storage room was located. It was triple locked with titanium bolts- making it the securest room on the base, even more secure than the lab or even the base itself- and a pain to break into. Artemis used up 3 more of his cylindrical charges to try and break it open, and although it was considerably weakened, it had not yet opened. However, with the structure suitably damaged, Artemis was able to calculate its weak spots, enabling Butler to break it down with a few heavy kicks, a shoulder charge and a few strategic blows. All in all, it took them 12 minutes to get through the door, which was longer than it had taken to build it.  
"These samples best be in here" Holly said, scanning the room. It was a storage room alright, but she had no idea whether they would be able to find a few small samples in the vast mess.  
"They'll be in here" Artemis replied. "The question is where in here are they located."  
"We can discount the stack of crates to the east side of the room" Butler said. He looked round a few more times. "The tankers can be discounted too, and the venting areas."  
"Care to explain Butler?" Artemis asked, though Holly could tell he agreed with his friend.  
"The crates are opened and unsecured, the tankers contain liquid as you can see through the colour difference, and the venting areas are too inaccessible."  
"All very good answers Butler" Artemis replied, "But that's not why they're not in those places. There's one very large detail you're missing."  
"Radiation!" Holly suddenly blurted out before she realised. She felt Artemis and Butler's eyes on her and steadied herself. "The metal gives off radiation, so it has to be contained in something that shields the base from that radiation."  
"Give the elf a medal" Artemis said. "Preferably a gold one too."  
"That leaves the freezer" Butler said, indicating the large, white door that was opposite them. Artemis walked over to inspect it and, finding a keypad to an electronic locking mechanism, attempted to crack the code. However, after a couple of minutes of trying various combinations and algorithms, he threw his arms up in the air, defeated. Holly walked over to him, wrapping her arm around his waist.  
"Tough day at the office" She said, and Artemis nodded his agreement. "You can't crack the code?"  
"I can crack the code" He replied, "I just don't have long enough to do it. I managed to back trace all of the previous code combinations from the time they've been here. It changes every week via a computer randomiser, but as they've only been here for a couple of months it isn't possible to determine exactly what code the randomiser uses."  
"No randomiser is ever actually random" Holly recalled, echoing what Artemis had told her once before when they were trying to crack Foaly's new, state of the art encrypted locking system, which implemented the use of a randomiser. Naturally, Foaly had not been best pleased when he had entered his office the next day to find everything had been wrapped up in clingfilm.  
"Exactly. No matter how much we try to avoid it, all computers are logical. When we tell them to pick a random number, we're actually telling them to create and implement an obscure coding pattern. I have 3 different options for what pattern this locking mechanism could be using, but I don't dare try them because one false entry locks down the entire system."  
"What happens then?"  
"We have to do a full hard reset, and I just don't have the equipment to do one down here. The only way to open this now would be to find the code. The only people who'd know the code are the people working here."  
"I would suggest we find someone and take the code, but I haven't once seen a single person down here today. I would have expected to have seen at least one person, especially now we're in the very heart of the complex." Holly said, staring at Artemis.  
"Ah, yes. I can explain that, but I don't think you're going to like it..."

"We don't know where they are. The crew have disappeared." The way Butler said the words, so calmly and coolly, you have thought he'd just told Holly the evening's weather forecast. She almost wanted him to repeat the words, just so she could be sure he had actually said them.  
"When?" Was all Holly said.  
"A few days ago" Artemis said. He had now separated himself from Holly, and was over the other side of the room, facing away from them. "A mayday signal was sent by Aquaria Major 3 days ago, intended for XTECH headquarters in Melbourne. The signal wasn't strong enough to reach Australia, but as Butler's contact had synced their phones so I could be kept in the loop, we received the mayday. The mayday signal was received as a 'Code Black' message- abandon all stations, seal the area. That signal is only given in the case that there is no possibility of survival and precious cargo must be secured."  
"So that's why we're here, to secure 'precious cargo'?" Holly said, venom in her voice. "And you didn't at any point decide to tell me?"  
"I didn't want you to come along" Artemis said, genuine pain in his voice. "I really did not. But as you insisted on joining the expedition, I made the executive decision that you should be told as little as possible."  
"Yet everyone else knew. I bet Scar knew, didn't he? He wouldn't have agreed otherwise. Foaly probably knew too, so he could send the right equipment." Holly continued. Artemis' meek nod indicated to her that she was right. "But you didn't tell me. I'm your sidekick Artemis, your partner! I'm the person who turned your life around and you tell me nothing!"  
"What if I had?" Artemis said, turning around to face Holly. His eyes were an angry red, water brimming around the perimeter. "You would never have let me go. You would have done everything in your power to keep me out of this."  
"You're damn right I would have. A group of experienced scientists go missing you send a search and rescue party, not two mud men and an elf! You shouldn't be keeping secrets from me." As soon as she had said the words, Holly realised how empty they were. Wasn't she doing exactly that to him? Holding a secret inside of her that he really should know about. Was she even any better than he was in general?- The renegade cop who likes to bend the rules, who likes to improvise and ignore orders rather than follow the rule book. Were they really so different? Holly in that moment wanted to take back everything she had said, to turn back time and say something, anything other than what she had. But it was when Artemis started talking again that she realised just how much regretted it.  
"I did it to keep you safe. I did it so that you didn't spend the entire day worrying about me. I did it because I care about you Holly and I'm not going to stop now. I want to keep you safe as much as you do for me."  
Holly, tentatively, brought herself closer to Artemis. "I know, Artemis. I'm sorry. I just didn't expect this, and I overreacted. I understand why you wanted to keep me out of this. Are we really just here to collect samples?"  
"Yes, the aim has always been that. But we're down here because we need to secure those samples before somebody else realises they're unguarded and takes them first, including whatever was responsible for the mayday signal."  
Holly glanced at Artemis, who for once in his life looked as truthful as he sounded. Overcome by the emotion, she grabbed him in a great hug, bringing herself as close to him as she could. Artemis reciprocated the embrace, lowering himself down to her level.  
"We will find a way to get those samples, and then we will leave. I promise."  
"OK. Let's do this" Holly said.  
"Let's do this" Artemis replied.

And then the room went black. And then the sirens started screaming.

 **And now the fun begins.**


	11. Red Alert

**I know I've been gone for a short while, you can blame exams for that. But I'm back now! And here's a new chapter, for the 5 or so of you that still read this.**

Artemis and Holly dethatched faster than the speed of light as the blaring white noise pierced their tranquillity. The room was illuminated a blood red as the alarms lights flashed around them.  
" Scheiße" Artemis said out loud to himself, and Butler, who had been patiently watching and listening to Artemis and Holly's exchange, this time slapped **him** across the face. Holly reminded herself to remember this moment every time Artemis complained about someone swearing.  
"Computer run diagnostics" Artemis shouted into the air.  
"Hull breach detected" An electronic voice echoed out from above. "Depressurisation threat imminent."  
"What does that mean?" Holly asked.  
"We're at the bottom of the ocean- the pressure down here is far higher than atmospheric and Aquaria Major has to be correctly pressurised to stop the entire base from imploding. If the hull has been breached, that means the pressurisation seal has been broken."  
"It means we have to get out of here, fast" Butler added.  
"There are two things that would cause something like this. Either Aquaria Major was already seriously damaged, or it means somebody is trying to get in."  
"You think it could be the people responsible for the disappearance of the crew?"  
"If it is" Artemis said, "Then I don't want to be here when they show up."  
Butler didn't allow Artemis to do any more talking, instead grabbing him and hauling him out of the room. Holly quickly followed.  
"If we go right at the next bend it should take us all the way down to elevator number 2." Artemis shouted, causing Butler to suddenly change his course. The corridor here was much the same as the other ones they had walked down, with a glass wall to one side of them. What Holly hadn't seen was the pair of large cracks following her through that glass.  
"The way ahead is blocked off" She said, stopping. Beside her, the two cracks finally joined each other, splintering the glass.  
"Holly!" Artemis shouted, getting free of Butler's grasp just in time to push her out of the way as the concentrated jet of water burst through the splintered glass. As Holly crashed to the floor the jet hit Artemis square in the chest, throwing him against the opposite wall like a ragdoll. Holly, regaining her senses, crawled to Artemis' side.  
"He's broken a couple of ribs" She called out to Butler.  
"You don't say" Artemis replied hazily, but stopped when he began coughing up blood.  
"It's OK Artemis, I can heal you. Just hang on."  
"Not here Holly" Butler shouted. "This place is flooding fast, we have to find somewhere else." Carefully he picked Artemis off the floor, and led Holly back down the corridor. This time they decided to follow it all the way back, and eventually came to a small opening.  
"You are an idiot Artemis" Butler said, "We need to seal ourselves in."  
Holly thought about questioning his logic, but the water was reaching them quickly, so she did as he asked, punching in a few commands to the central computer. As the great metal blast doors began to close, Butler set Artemis down. Holly moved over beside him, and, letting her hands feel out the major break points in his ribs, let the magic flow into his body. Soon, his body had repaired itself sufficiently to feel normal, but Holly could never be certain with internal injuries. She could only hope.

When Artemis opened his eyes, he was not in the same place that he was when he closed them.  
"Where are we?" He asked.  
"We're not entirely sure" Holly replied, so Artemis reached into his pocket to pull out the map again. He felt a bit sore, but otherwise OK. "But we had to seal ourselves in here because the corridor was flooding."  
Artemis looked through the window in the blast door, which was now completely submerged in water. Suddenly the entire floor began to tremor violently, and the corridor they had just been walking through exploded into thousands of pieces of floating debris.  
"Aquaria Major is breaking up" He said, still staring. "It's finished."  
"Then we have to move, now" Butler urged.  
"The only elevator not on that side of the base is the one inside the loading docks" Artemis said, hauling himself up. "That is where we'll have to go."  
Butler didn't even wait for Artemis to have fully stood up before grabbing him and hauling him out of the door. Holly could never tell whether Artemis was appreciative of Butler manhandling him or not, but he never put up much resistance, save for a couple of minutes ago.  
"Through there" Artemis said, pointing to a set of open double doors. When they went through them, they found themselves in a vast expanse of crates and boxes.  
"So this is where they keep all of their new supplies" Holly said. "That's a lot of stuff."  
"Some of it is just for general maintenance" Artemis said, Butler having now put him down. "With a base this big, you can get through a lot of product."  
"Which way to the elevator Artemis?" Butler asked, impatient to get back to the surface.  
"Over there, by the loading crane." He replied. Butler began walking towards the target destination, but when he passed a large set of crates, something darted out from behind them, catching him in the back and nearly flooring him. Gathering himself, he stared at it indignantly; He may not have recognised it, but Artemis and Holly most certainly did.  
"Surely that isn't..." Holly began.  
"I think it is" Artemis finished. "But how did one of Flower Kevoor's robots get down here?"  
Butler meanwhile was still staring down the robot, but eventually, having assessed the situation, the robot brought its gun arm up, ready to fire. Artemis decided in that moment to charge at the robot and jump onto it. As soon as he made contact with the droid's metal surface, 50000 Volts of electricity began coursing through the robot's circuits. It attempted to fight back, but under the increasing electrical pressure, all of its shots were wildly off the mark. After a few more seconds, it ceased moving, and dropped to the floor once Artemis had dropped off of it.  
"We need to get to that elevator" Holly insisted, just as a pair of boxes exploded behind them. She could see yet another robot in the background, gun arm already in action.  
"Not possible" Artemis said, "It's blocking off the escape route."  
"I'll sort it" Butler said. He pulled a large revolver out of his waistband and fired two rounds that went straight through the robot's torso, just as a stream of laser fire burst a couple of pipes behind them. The robot swivelled a little bit, before falling to the ground in a mechanical heap. Holly, Artemis and Butler were already on the move when another pair of robots appeared infront of them. Butler prepared to fire again when there was a large clang behind them. Instinctively, Holly reached to the back of her head. By the time she saw her hand was covered in blood, she was already falling to the floor.

 **We're all set for phase 2. What happens next is... Well, you'll just have to find out for youself.**


	12. Water Demons

**It's time for things to get weird, very weird...**

Wherever Holly was, it was dark. It brought memories back to Holly of the last time she had woken up in a dark place, when she had been captured and taken to Dubai with Artemis, and locked in a pitch black room with no obvious means of escape. This time, however, was a little bit different. For a start, she wasn't in a room- it was more like a cave- and it wasn't pitch black. It was dark, sure, but she could still see. She hadn't been drugged this time, so far as she could tell, and instead of being stuck with just Artemis, Butler was here too. They had both surrendered after Holly had been attacked, mainly because the people who had captured them had threatened to smash the glass in the loading docks and kill them all if they didn't. That was the biggest difference, the fact that other people were actually there, guarding over them. Holly glanced behind her at one of them, who was holding a short spear-like weapon with a serrated edge. Every time she did, it freaked her out just a little bit more, because these people resembled the undead armies she saw in smuggled mud men movies than the mud men herself. Their flesh seemed as if it had been charred and rotted away, the skeletal features of each one easily visible against the black of the cave despite the crude clothing they attempted to wear. From looking over at Artemis, Holly could tell he was just as freaked out by this as she was, no doubt trying to search his large brain for a plausible explanation as to why they had been kidnapped by a pair of zombies. Holly herself also wanted an explanation, but mesmerising the pair of them was out of the question- that required eye contact and, quite honestly, neither of them seemed to possess any eyes. Butler, meanwhile, was just standing emotionlessly, staring ahead into the abyss. However, the sound of footsteps caused him to move his head to the side of the cave. 2 more like the capturers began to emerge from the shadows. One of them took the lead, walking like he was in charge. He was wearing the remains of a radioactive shield suit, and, unlike the 2 guards or the one walking behind him, he possessed one eye, which was a deep, ruby red and bloodshot to the extreme. The other eye socket was covered up by an eye patch. The one behind him looked far similar to the 2 guards, but he could be distinguished by the glint of silver in one of his few remaining teeth. It was a horrifying sight. It was... Surreal.

"More visitors?" The leader said towards the two guards. He sounded very well spoken for a skeleton, Holly thought to herself. The guards nodded, and he smiled widely.  
"I take it you're the person responsible for this abduction" Artemis said coolly. "Using those droids was a clever yet cowardly move."  
The leader looked at Artemis with a confused look for a second, then began. "Those droids were not of my doing."  
"Well they certainly did not seem to attack you when your people arrived." Artemis replied.  
"That is because they've learnt that they cannot defeat us. They no longer see use in attacking us."  
"So you've been there a while then?" Holly found herself asking.  
"Oh we've been onboard Aquaria Major for a good deal of time now." There was a pause as he seemed to search his thoughts. "Where are my manners? I haven't properly introduced myself, have I? My name is Azikh Khan, and I am the glorious leader of the Water Demons! This here by my side is my wonderful assistant, number two. Welcome to our metropolis."  
"Two points" Artemis said, instantly killing Khan's exaggerative mood. "Out of all of the names you could have chosen, you went with 'Water Demons'? You could have chosen something slightly more exciting. Even _aqua daemonia_ would have sounded grander. Secondly, your metropolis is a cave."  
"This is but a small part of our glorious empire" Khan snapped, and his eye began to glow. Holly had seen that before; Not that colour, but she had definitely seen it before. So had Artemis. "And I dare you to challenge my rule as Emperor! I bring the peace and the righteousness to my people, no matter what we're called."  
"I'm not going to challenge you" Artemis stated flatly. "Your people would be of no use to me anyway. But I do have a question. How old are you? You look like you should be long dead but I'm guessing that's just a clever cloaking mechanism, no?"  
Khan laughed, and Holly could almost feel the entire cave begin to shake. "You ask me my age, and I will respond to you by telling you I have no age. Age is a number, yet I am infinite."  
"Well that's not true. You must have an age. Every human has an age." Artemis said, smiling. Holly was enjoying watching him play dumb as much as he was playing it.  
"HUMAN!" Khan bellowed, turning to number two. "This person believes that I am human. I despise the term human. Humans are weak, weak creatures. My people are not humans because we are invincible."  
Artemis let out an over exaggerated gasp, not that Khan noticed. "Invincible? No. Damn. Way."  
Holly almost could stop herself bursting out with laughter. This was so not like Artemis it was surreal, but it was also one of the most brilliant things she had ever seen. Butler, somehow, still had no expression on his face at all.  
"Oh you don't believe me. Of course you don't believe me. Well, why don't I show you the artefact of our people, that has locked in our eternal invincibility!" Khan signalled number two, and the two of them walked- or shuffled in the case of number two, who didn't seem to have the full command of his legs- towards a large boulder in the side of the rockface. As they began to roll it away, a blue light began to fill the cave. Now Artemis was genuinely staring in awe.  
"No that isn't possible" He let out. "That's an Energy Matrix."

As soon as Artemis had spoken those words, Khan's expression made a sudden change. Having been enigmatic and all for telling the poor human teenager about his people, he was now very, very angry. He practically leapt from his position and hauled Artemis off the floor, his eye now positively luminous. Butler sprang from his position aswell to defend Artemis, but one of the guards caught Butler in the side of the head with his spear, which was a lot heavier than it had looked, knocking him to the floor in a barely conscious heap. Holly too thought about moving, but after seeing what had happened to Butler, she decided the best course of action was to stay put, especially having been hit over the head once already.  
"Tell me what you know, human!" Khan practically hissed. "I need to know what you know!"  
"That is not a very nice way to talk to your guests" Artemis said back.  
"I am not in the mood for playing games. You know more than you should and I want to know!"  
"OK. One thing I do know is that you possess an energy matrix, which really should not be possible."  
"How do you know of the energy matrix? How do you know?"  
"I've come across one before. What I want to know is how you came to be in possession of one of the most powerful tools in the universe."  
Khan's expression changed yet again, softening as he dropped Artemis to the floor. "Let me tell you the story of me and my people. One day we found ourselves separated from the world, isolated. In the depths of solitude and abandonment, we found a light. The light that burned in our souls with the power of a thousand suns! It called to us, and forced us to become better than the human scum that left us behind to rot. So we evolved and adapted, and we became our own race. We learnt to fend for ourselves. We became immortal."  
"I doubt that" Artemis said, "But continue."  
"We knew that this was a gift from a force we could not comprehend. To be given the clarity to begin our own way of life, we knew someone of a higher power was responsible. With all the time that we've had to evolve, we realised that it was not one, but 3 different powers colluding to help us. The light, the water and the stars. All 3 had a hand in our creation and our rise! Our goddesses: Celestia, who rules the stars and provides us with our dreams, and Aquaria who allowed us to thrive in the depths of the oceans. But there is one more powerful than all the others: Solaria, goddess of the light, who gave life to the water demons! We owe our existence to them."  
"Aquaria. So that is why you made your way to this base."  
"It was a sign. A sign from our goddesses. Celestia sent the meteorite, Aquaria provided us with a safe passage, Solaria provided us with the energy to complete our goals."  
"And your goals would be?"  
"We have already been exposed to the light and the water a great deal, for which we are grateful of, but we long for the stars. We long to finally join Celestia in the dark void and the bright lights. She sent us the meteorite so that we could reach her. We will reach the stars."  
"Somehow I doubt that a few skeletons living in an underwater cave are going to have the capabilities of blasting off into space." Artemis said, but Khan scoffed at it.  
"You underestimate us greatly. For in that meteorite is the power source we need to build the MetaTonne Nuclear reactor that will power our rocket!" There was a flash of artificial lighting behind Khan, from the Matrix, that for a split second made him seem even more menacing than before. But it did one other thing- it illuminated the giant reactor core behind him."  
"Of course." Artemis said, and Holly could see a realisation washing over him. "I know where I've heard your name before."

 **I mean, I told you it was going to get weird. And who says I'm finished here?**


	13. The Legend Of Azikh Khan

**Homicidal skeletons in an underwater cave. I really outdo myself sometimes.**

"I think that fact that I hadn't been born when this event happened is one of the main reasons I only just made the connection, but it had been bothering me that I'd heard the name Azikh Khan before somewhere. Now I think I know where. During one of the many days I spent looking through my extensive collection of old newspaper articles from around the world, I came across one from 30 years ago, detailing an explosion at the Carrascola Nuclear institute in North Carolina that killed all 168 people who were working there. The article caught my eye because of one detail- they never found any remains. The explosion destroyed everything, and all people working there were presumed dead because they were in there at the time of the disaster, but no bodies were ever found. Not even remains. Weirder still, they could never find a reason for the explosion. But, as they conducted their investigations, one name kept popping up- Azikh Khan. A world renowned nuclear scientist at the top of his field, but one who had been brought up numerous times because of his extravagant and rather dangerous methods of experimentation. He was one more expensive failure from being let go, and instantly became the main suspect. But he was also supposedly killed in the explosion, and as the police could never find any evidence of arson or sabotage, it was left as unexplained. But I would hazard to guess I'm looking at the explanation right now. Am I getting close, Azikh?"  
"Please" Khan said, "Do carry on. I'm rather enjoying this."  
"I'm not" Holly decided to add. "This is really weirding me out."  
"But you understand what I'm trying to explain?" Artemis asked.  
"You think Khan is the nuclear scientist who caused the explosion, with one of his experiments that went wrong."  
"Yes, but not just any experiment." Artemis pointed at the Energy Matrix. "He caused the explosion with that experiment."  
"He tried to build a matrix and something went wrong?" Holly offered.  
"Oh yes. Who in their right mind decides to try and harness pure energy inside a console? And who, other than Opal Koboi, who despite her evil tendencies is something of a genius, is actually able to do it, first try, without anything going wrong? Not Khan, that's for sure. But, with his job on the line, he decided to put everything into making sure this project could be completed to a high standard. What happened Azikh? Overload a few systems, cause a core meltdown? Pure energy is unstable at the best of times, but do you know what else it is? Powerful. Powerful enough to infect the remains of every single person caught up in the Carrascola disaster and bring them 'back from the dead'. Their bodies, their minds were reanimated by the power running through them. And you knew what was happening, didn't you?" Artemis said, aiming it directly at Khan. He said nothing.  
"Do you think he planned it?" Holly asked.  
"No, not initially. But once you realised" He aimed at Khan again, "You decided this could be used to your advantage. You took it upon yourself to take over the new group of people and become their leader, to promise them a new beginning. Of course, not everyone would be most pleased with you. After all, you were the one responsible for killing them, for deforming them beyond recognition. So you rounded up those who were loyal, and you took the Matrix, and you left. And with no energy powering them, those that were left behind simply turned to dust."  
Khan began clapping once Artemis had finished, a sly smile present on his face. "Very good, very good indeed. You **are** far more intelligent than I expected, but I'm afraid you can tell all the stories you want, it isn't going to be able to save you. And once you and your friends are dead, you'll make excellent servants."  
"Granted" Artemis said, "But before we meet our inevitable doom, I'd like one last request."  
"Which is?"  
"To congratulate you. To shake your hand."

Holly almost thought that Artemis had lost his mind. Facing impending doom, and he wanted to shake his tormentor's hand? But as he took a step closer, Holly clocked him glancing backwards. Tracking his movements, she also looked back, and saw Butler regaining consciousness. Well, he was always already conscious, but he had now very much regained his senses. They had a plan. Khan, the narcissistic zombie, wanted nothing more than to be congratulated, so he welcomed Artemis towards him. He extended his hand, and Artemis took it willingly. At first, it didn't seem as if anything was happening, but slowly Khan's arm began to vibrate, white smoke pouring out of every crack. Khan himself couldn't seem to let go.  
"What are you doing to me?" He gasped as his entire right shoulder splintered under pressure. At the very same time, Butler sprang to his feet. One of the guards went to attack him, but he grabbed the spear and tore it out of the guard's hand before stabbing it straight through the other guard's eye socket. He then turned around, grabbed the first guard and quite literally snapped him in half over his leg. There was a fizz and then a bang beside Holly as Khan finally gave in to the 50,000 volts coursing through what was left of his body and caught fire. As the flames began to rise up his body, Artemis leaned into him.  
"Arrogance is stupidity. If you are arrogant, it is because there is something you do not know. I suppose in this case I was the thing that you did not know."  
Flames shot out from every pore in Khan's body, but still Artemis did not let go. The red eye that had so defined Azikh Khan lit up and burst into a gooey mess. As Khan screeched, Artemis finally let go, pushing him away into the darkness. Number two meanwhile had just been watching, and slowly backing away, but after seeing what was left of Khan, he made a run for it. Holly, in split-second timing, stuck out a leg. With no time to react, number two tripped straight over it. Off balance and going far too fast to stop, he stumbled into the very Energy Matrix that was powering him. With an exasperated scream, he was vapourised.  
"Artemis" Holly said, "I suggest we run."  
"I think I like that suggestion a lot" He replied, and so they ran.

Butler, naturally, led the way again as they sprinted through the extensive cave. With there being a shortage of natural light, the three of them had to rely on their other senses to avoid crashing into any of the walls or pillars, though on more than one occasion Artemis manage to fail at doing just that. Confident neither Khan nor any of his followers had caught up to them, they stopped to take a breather.  
"Artemis, what the hell were they?" Holly said between breaths. Right now she wished she had been allowed to take a pair of wings with her.  
"They were exactly what I said they were" Artemis replied. "An Energy Matrix is a powerful device, powerful to raise an army of the undead. Khan was clever though- he'd dialled himself into the Matrix itself. Whilst everyone else was a brainless zombie, he still had full control of his thoughts, which means he dialled himself into the Matrix before it blew up everyone else."  
"How do you dial yourself into a Matrix?" Holly asked.  
"Well, think of the one thing he had that nobody else did."  
"His eye!" Holly exclaimed. "But he doesn't have that anymore."  
"He doesn't, but you need slightly more than an eyeball to create a connection. The eyeball provided the pathway into his nervous system, but underneath the eye-patch he was wearing I saw cluster of micro-chips, which would be able to store everything: Memories, plans, ideals. Everything that would have been lost when his brain was destroyed. That is also something you can only do before you blow yourself up. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that he planned the entire event."  
"Homicidal zombies, just what we needed" Butler said. "And I thought finding an entire population of fairies living underground was weird enough."  
"Hey, we're not that bad" Holly complained. "Well, most of us, anyway. Now, I think we should keep moving and see if we can find a way out of this cave."  
"One problem" Butler replied. "There's a fork in the cave."  
"Oh wonderful" Holly said sarcastically, moving beside Butler. "There seems to be a fork in everything today." Now at the edge of the path, Holly could clearly make out the divide infront of them. One of the routes, the one that curved off to the right, was a continuation of the cave. The other route would take them through what looked like a glass tube. But, it was an illuminated glass tube.  
"We take the tube" Artemis said, joining them.  
"What makes you say that?" Holly asked.  
"Consider this my dear elfin friend. We are dry, and yet we managed to travel through an expanse of ocean to get to this cave. Now there are no caves around the base, which means the only plausible explanation is that we went through that tube. Also, despite the face they blindfolded us before they took us here, I can remember the route we took."  
"Tube it is then" Holly said, and they set off once more.

The tube was angled slightly uphill, but shallow enough that Holly, for the most part, didn't notice. The tunnel was most certainly made of glass, highly refined, polished and no doubt one of the many luxuries Azikh Khan stole in the process of setting up his elaborate plot. Soon, however, they reached a crest in the tube. Looking down, Holly could once again see the might of Aquaria Major. It looked different from the outside, like a giant 3D spider with 8 legs spread out evenly from a giant, bloated body, although half of those legs were in ruins from the depressurisation. And, in the centre of that body, was the asteroid. Butler was the first to walk over the crest, and was faced with two more offshooting tunnels.  
"Which one?" He asked.  
"Neither" Artemis replied. "Follow the path. We go straight down."  
And so they carried on walking. Holly managed to lose herself in the rhythm of everyone's footsteps, until the pattern changed. Pulling herself back into reality, she decided to listen closer, and realised the noise wasn't coming from any of them.  
"Guys" She said, "Stop a second." In the now almost silent atmosphere, they could all hear the whirring, rolling sounds behind them. Simultaneously they all turned around, just in time to see a claw swinging straight towards them. Artemis ducked- and even though Holly was already so short that the claw passed over her head, she did too- but Butler stayed firm. When it reached him, he grabbed it, then tore it off the droid it was attached to. The droid decided the next best option was to swing its gun arm, but Butler parried it, took hold of the robot's head, and tore it straight off. If they thought it was over, however, they were mistaken, because another droid suddenly appeared behind them. Butler attempted to halt it, but it saw him coming and hit him hard in the balls. Even someone like Butler couldn't stop bending over in pain, and the droid saw this as an opportunity. It skirted past Holly and Artemis so that it was now infront of them. In one motion, it brought its gun up and aimed straight at Artemis.

It never fired. Instead, as a great burning hole formed in its torso, it gave out a small wail and collapsed to the floor. And, when the droid dropped to the floor, both Artemis and Holly were left stunned as to who was behind it.

 **Oh the cliffhangers. Except, you can probably guess who it anyway...**


	14. Return Of A Fallen Angel

"Opal Koboi" Holly said quietly to herself.  
"Yes, Holly" Opal replied, "Unless I'm mistaken, I am definitely Opal Koboi."  
"You shouldn't be here. You should be dead. I saw you get shot."  
"Holly" Artemis butted in, "I've already explained this to you-"  
"But I never believed it, not entirely. There was always a part of me that hoped I would never see her again."  
"Should I just leave then?" Opal asked sarcastically. "Or does the fact I just saved your sorry lives for a second time not mean anything to you?"  
"Why did you save our lives?" Holly asked. "Surely you would be happier to see us dead. Infact, why are you even here in the first place?"  
"Given time, I would love to see you dead, but right now you and the mud boy are more use to me alive. Though I would like to get out of this glass cage and back to Aquaria Major if you don't mind. And, you don't have to worry, I finished off all of the robots too. The things I do for you people."  
Holly didn't reply, she was too caught up looking at Opal. Other than the fact that, despite what Artemis had told her, she hadn't expected to see Opal alive again, she looked sleeker, fitter, even more enchanting than ever before. She was captivating.  
"You know Holly" Opal said, "Staring at me really isn't going to get us out of here any faster."

Butler recovered sufficiently quickly that they could start moving straight away, though Holly was still convinced that she was seeing things. Normally her first instinct would be restrain the Pixie, to arrest her and lock her up for eternity. But the fact Opal wasn't attacking them- that she actually helped them- made Holly curious. Artemis too didn't seem overly fazed by her presence and, until he told her otherwise, she was going to trust his judgement that they shouldn't end her there and then. Interestingly, Artemis had gone up front with Opal, and the two of them were deep in conversation. She didn't know what they were talking about, but Holly hoped that Artemis knew what he was doing, because Opal could go from 0 to insane in about 2 seconds flat. She would have joined them, but Butler was practically holding her back, probably so she didn't do something stupid. Still, she really wished she knew what they were talking about.

"You shouldn't be here Opal" Artemis said into the air. It was hard to talk casually when one of the beings was 3ft tall and the other 5ft 7. It was even slightly harder for Artemis than when he talked to Holly, as she was 1 inch taller than Opal. "Our deal was that you stayed away from this and I did the retrieval myself."  
"That was not our deal Artemis, and you know it; Our deal was that I did not taken any of the samples for myself, not that I couldn't come down here and watch. Though I was expecting to find you and your merry army, not those d'arviting robots."  
Artemis slapped Opal across the face. "Don't swear."  
Opal gasped loudly. "You!" She said sharply, "If you slap me one more time Artemis Fowl, I will end you, deal or not." So Artemis slapped her again. She turned to him with a split-second burning fury, but did nothing, and returned back to her calm state.  
"I do love having power" Artemis said. "And you really need to stop swearing or I might end up giving you brain damage."  
"You don't get to tell me what to do" Opal muttered, but then increased her voice back to normal. "So, do you have the samples?"  
"No" He replied. "I've just been on the run from a deranged skeleton, plus I didn't have the right codes to get into the storage unit. "Why?"  
"Because they're not there! I thought you'd already taken them."  
"Not there?" Artemis enquired. "And you don't have them?"  
"Artemis, if I had the samples, you would never have seen me again. Well, not before I killed you, that is. As it stands, I'm still having to rely on you, your condescending girlfriend and the giant you call a bodyguard to become rich. And if you don't have the samples..."  
"Then somebody else does. Which means someone else was onboard Aquaria Major between the time I got captured and the time you arrived."  
"What about your merry band of skeletons, could they have taken it?"  
"Possibly, but I believe Khan might already have had his own source of the metal. If his nuclear reactor was anything to go by, he didn't need any more."  
"We can use the computer onboard what is left of Aquaria Major to track where it went in the area of this base anyway; The samples were tagged with a tracking device."  
"In that case" Artemis said with a smile, "We should get back there as soon as possible."

They reached Aquaria Major with no further trouble. Holly still didn't know what Artemis and Opal had been saying, but after seeing Artemis slap the Pixie twice during their conversation, she could be sure Opal had been swearing during it. It almost made Holly want to go up and slap Opal herself, but Butler had read her body language and stopped her before she tried. Clearing the airlock had meant they were all close together again, and, despite how hard she tried, she couldn't stop looking at Opal. Opal knew it too, because whenever she caught Holly looking at her, she'd blow an over suggestive kiss or give an exaggerated wink in her direction. Holly didn't want it to wind her up, but it was certainly starting to the more it happened. Maybe Butler had been right to hold her back after all. Eventually they were through the airlock and back into the base.  
"Computer" Artemis said once they were in. "Can you run a trace for me."  
"Certainly Master Fowl" The electronic voice replied.  
"Hey!" Opal exclaimed, "How come the computer addresses you without 7 different security checks I had to cheat my way past each time I wanted to ask something?"  
"I hacked into the system. All I needed was a wonderful little golden device which dissolved into the wall and infected their computers. It's a shame it couldn't open the storage door though, only grant me access to the information system. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes- computer, I need you to run a trace on a set of samples for me."  
"Of course. What is the tag number?" The computer asked.  
"79775" Opal said.  
"What the Pixie said" Artemis echoed, and the computer began to calculate. Eventually, a hologram appeared infront of them that depicted the schematics of the base. Holly could see the trace as a bold, blue line that lead from the storage room all the way up to sea level.  
"They're not here" Holly said.  
"You don't say?" Opal replied. "What makes you think that?"  
"The fact I have a working brain" Holly muttered under her breath, taking a step closer to Opal, who looked ready to strike at any minute herself.  
"Now, fairies" Artemis said, standing between them. "Can we please restrain from attacking each other until we get out of here?"

Elevator number 3 was the only working elevator that was close enough for them to reach. This time Butler had to literally park himself infront of Holly to stop her getting close to Opal, who was loving every minute she was winding up Holly. They reached the elevator without any further problems, and both fairies were still in one piece. With the elevator only being so big, it meant everyone had to squash together to fit. Holly and Opal were on the far edges, with Artemis and Butler placed in-between then. Butler calmly punched the '0' option, and the lift began to ascend to the surface.  
"Why is Opal here?" Holly asked Artemis in a low whisper as they began going up.  
"I suspect the same reason that we're here, to collect samples of a brand new and very powerful radioactive metal."  
"But we already know that the samples aren't here, so I'm going to change my question. Why is Opal _still_ here?"  
"Sometimes my dear Holly, you have to work with your enemies to get what you want."  
Holly caught the look on Artemis' face when he said that. There was a spark in his eyes that she only ever saw when he was formulating a plot of some design. And, if she was right, that meant that he had a plan. Holly just hoped that plan was enough to get rid of Opal soon enough, and with them all still alive.  
"You two do know I can hear you, right?" Opal asked from the other side of the elevator.  
"Now you know how I feel!" Artemis exclaimed. "It's infuriating, isn't it?"  
"Oh it's not nearly as bad as seeing you show any form of emotion, Artemis. Believe me, that is enough to scar even the toughest of Pixies."  
"Your sarcasm wounds me" Artemis said, just as the elevator shuddered to a halt at the top of the shaft. "Now, let's get out of here and find those samples."  
The good thing about elevator number 3 was that it didn't have any kind of chute mechanism, and the elevator actually came out on the surface.  
"It's raining" Butler remarked. "The storm caught up with us after all."  
"Oh good" Holly said, "There are so many grey clouds I can't tell whether or not we're still in daylight."  
"It's 6 in the evening" Artemis said, "We were below sea level for about 5 hours."  
Holly spotted Butler's boat still moored to the edge of the docking platform, but there was now another craft also secured next to it. A small submersible, the approximate size to accommodate a certain Pixie.  
"Well, how else do you think I got down there? Take the submersible up to the platform and hitch an elevator ride all the way down."  
"I don't know" Holly said, "How about you use some of your dark magic?"  
"Very funny" Opal replied. "I'm more than just my magic, I've learnt much more since I lost it than I ever did when I had it."  
"Save the speeches" Butler said. He was next to the boat that they had travelled in. Attached to the side of the boat was a small package, wrapped in brown paper and duct taped to the hull exterior. "Artemis, stay here until I perform a sweep."  
Artemis nodded his assent as Butler boarded the boat. He was gone for a total of five minutes, in which time Artemis had to stop Opal and Holly getting closer and closer to each other. At one point he even had to stick his arms out as an actual barrier. Fortunately, Butler did reappear, and he could relax. If anything, Holly was even more on edge.  
"The sweep is clear Artemis, and the package doesn't register anything lethal, toxic or explosive, human or fairy. With your permission, I'd like to open it."  
"Of course Butler. Open it."

 **Opal always was my favourite character...**


	15. Hatching A Plan

**I'm about 12,500 words into the sequel to this. All is going according to plan...**

As soon as Butler broke the seal on the package, which he had laid on the floor next to the boat, the package automatically unfolded itself until it represented something close to a miniature recording device, attached to a radio transmitter. When it finished unfolding, a blue light switched on and the recording device began playing. A hologram was projected from the device, but whoever was on the other end was wearing a helmet.  
"Good evening Artemis Fowl" The message began. The voice was heavily masked by some kind of electronic voice disguiser, so it was impossible to decipher who was on the other end that way either. "I trust that both Holly Short and Opal Koboi are in attendance? Yes? Good. Now we can begin. As you can see, I know very well that you're here on the surface platform of Aquaria Major, and you're probably looking for the samples that were located down there. Well I have good news and bad news. Bad news- I have those samples. Good news- I'm going to give you the opportunity to get them back. But I want you to listen to my instructions very carefully, or you are going to regret it."  
"Already making threats" Holly said, "Good start already."  
"I have placed 3 separate packages in strategic locations across the world." A series of images began to flash up. One was of Fowl Manor, with the package secured nicely in Artemis' bedroom. The second was of Holly's house, where the package was located in her living room. The third depicted a small warehouse, with the package strapped to a support beam in the centre of the building. Holly didn't know what the strategic value of the warehouse was, but she knew damn well who it would belong to.  
"So somebody knows where I live" Opal said to herself.  
"It would certainly seem that way" Artemis responded. "You were living in a warehouse?"  
"Hey, it's functional and it means I'm never too far away from all of my stuff, which comes in useful when you're plotting to take over the world."  
"One of these packages" The video resumed, "Contains the aforementioned samples. The other two, however, contain a wonderful little implosion bomb, which will destroy everything within a 1 mile radius of the blast zone. The bombs themselves are set to a frequency of 100GHz; Should that signal ever be shut off, the bombs will detonate! Pick the wrong package, and a signal jammer installed will activate, and that bomb will detonate! You have just 8 hours to make your decision, or I might just set the bombs off myself."  
The video shut off as the device suddenly burst into flames. Within seconds, all that was left of it was a smouldering pile of ashes. Artemis and Butler, however, hadn't even waited that long to run back onto the boat. Holly and Opal exchanged glances before deciding it would be a good idea to join them.  
"Butler!" Artemis shouted as he took a seat behind the boat's minibar. "Take the controls and get us back to Ireland as soon as is physically possible."  
"Yes Artemis" He replied, taking his position up front. The boat lurched backwards just as Holly and Opal jumped aboard. Holly realised too late that Butler hadn't bothered to untether the boat from its docking clamp before setting off. There was a hideous crunching sound as the boat tore the entire mooring support shaft out from the platform, but the boat itself was fine. It looked as if they were going to be towing it for their entire journey.

"Ireland?" Holly asked. "So we're going back to Fowl Manor then?"  
"Oh no, we would never make it back to Fowl Manor in 8 hours. Not even close."  
"So which one are we going to then?"  
"We're not going to any of them." Artemis responded.  
"None of them!" Opal burst. "I say we go back down to my warehouse, because there are some pretty vital pieces of equipment own there that I can't have blown up!"  
"No" Artemis said flatly.  
"Yes! Don't make me hurt you."  
Artemis rolled his eyes and Holly had to stop herself from laughing too much. "Butler" He called. "Deal with Opal."  
During the next set of events, Holly couldn't help but burst out in a laughing fit. Butler emerged from the bridge and picked Opal up with minimal effort. Opal screamed and cried and hit Butler numerous times in an attempt to get free, but she was nowhere near strong enough. Butler walked over to a storage cupboard, threw Opal inside, slammed the door shut, locked it and then broke the lock. Holly could still hear Opal's muffled, high pitched screech as she tried to knock the door down.  
"Right" Artemis said, "Now that I can actually continue, let me tell you where we are actually going."

"Whichever location I would have chosen, the outcome would have been the same. It would have been a trap, there would have been no samples, and we would all have been vaporised by an implosion bomb. On top of this, all of the locations are outside of the 8 hour long time window anyway, so it doesn't make sense to go to one anyway."  
"So where are we going then?"  
"There is only one way to stop the bombs going off, and that is to keep the frequency jammed open. Each location is in an electromagnetic field, which has a frequency of 100GHz. Other than the fact 100GHz is a weirdly rounded value of frequency to choose, and is part of the microwave spectrum of electromagnetic waves, the bomb needs to be continually receiving that frequency for it to not go off. So we need to go to a place that has the capability of sending that signal to all 3 locations for an indefinite period of time. There is only one place that has those capabilities that is close enough for us to reach in the given time period- The Solenheim Radar facility on the west coast of Ireland. And so, that is where we are going, so that nothing blows up at all."  
Artemis, now finished, walked over to the cupboard and forced it open. Opal grudgingly walked out.  
"I should kill you all for this" She said. "I should finish off each and every one of you slowly and painfully."  
"Feel free" Artemis said, "But don't expect to ever see those samples, or you secret warehouse hideout, ever again."  
Opal snarled and walked off into one of the many adjoining room, slamming the door behind her.  
"Well, we have almost 6 hours to wait until we get back to Ireland" Artemis said to Holly. "Care to catch up on some sleep whilst we wait."  
Holly took Artemis' hand and led him down the stairs and into the bedroom.  
"I would be delighted to."

 **Phase 2 has begun. Somebody is behind all of this. But who? And why?**


	16. Assault On Solenheim

For once, the 6 hours passed quickly for Holly. She slept most of it, but even in the moments when she was awake, the world seemed to turn just that bit faster. They had docked in the same location that they had set off from- firstly because it was the closet port to Solenheim, but also because that's where Butler had parked the car.  
"How are we going to hide Opal from the people?" Holly asked once they had successfully docked. "I can shield, but she doesn't possess magic anymore."  
"Holly, it's just after midnight. The port is closed. There are no people here."  
"That works." She replied. Just then, Opal emerged from the room she had spent the last 6 hours in, looking rather frazzled.  
"Lack of sleep?" Artemis enquired.  
"Shut up" Opal replied, pushing her way past him and making her way onto the outside deck of the boat.  
"What did you do Artemis?" Holly asked.  
"Turned her heating up full blast, and then turned off her air circulation."  
"That is evil."  
"I know, isn't it wonderful?"  
"You know Artemis, I don't think I've seen you act like this in a very long time."  
"Holly, this is Opal Koboi we're talking about, who for the first time in her life actually needs our help with something. I'm going to use that to my advantage in every way I possibly can."  
When Butler jumped down from the control of the boat, the three of them decided to join Opal outside. It was, rather unfortunately, still raining, but to a lesser extent. Butler led them all off the boat, towards the E-Class that had been sat in the dock's small car park the entire time, looking as out of place amongst the rust buckets that surrounded it as was possible. Holly was almost surprised nobody had attempted to steal it, but then she realised that it was virtually impossible to steal.  
"Nice car" Opal remarked as she got in. She would be upfront with Butler, whilst Artemis and Holly sat in the back. "I still would have expected something better from somebody like you Artemis."  
"Well you'll just have to live with it. We're only going half an hour up the road."

Half an hour, as it turned out, was a conservative estimate, especially with Butler driving. Whilst the giant Eurasian could be a smooth and carefully driver when he was trying to make sure they got to places in both one piece and without attracting attention, when the time came to put his foot through the accelerator, he put his foot through the accelerator and then some. They were at Solenheim in 20 minutes flat.  
"And you called by driving reckless" Artemis commented, again, once they were inside the perimeter and parked, well out of view of the many guards that populated the facility.  
"Your driving is reckless" Butler replied. "Mine was merely quicker than average."  
"I know you guys could probably talk about driving for the next half century, but aren't we supposed to be breaking into this facility at some point soon?" Holly interrupted, her hands firmly placed on her hips.  
"Yes" Artemis replied. "Once I calculate a path inside that won't alert those 2 guards and get us all killed."  
"Screw that" Opal said, pulling a cylindrical device connected to what looked like a small solenoid. It was made out of diamond, but it still looked like one. "Meet the sonic disruptor. I invented this little guy myself. We point it in the direction of the guards, and the sonic waves will be powerful enough to knock them out for a good few hours."  
Artemis snorted. "Opal Koboi creates a device that can only knock people out? Forgive me if I don't believe you."  
"I designed this for use on fairies, not humans. But it'll do the job, and you don't seem to have any more plans to get us in."  
"I don't like it" Holly said.  
"Of course you don't. You don't like anything I do."  
"That's because it usually involves murdering people for no good reason. But, I hate to say it seems like the only thing that can get us in without alerting the guards."  
"Oh I completely agree" Artemis said, "I just wanted to make that point. Best be quick, we don't want to leave any more time for them to find the bodies than we have to. In, jam the frequency, out. Then we find whoever did this."  
"Well then I'd stand back." Opal warned, placing the object on the ground. It began to whirr and vibrate, the air around it beginning to waver and ripple. The waves propagated through the air until they reached the guards. Initially it looked like nothing was happening, but one by one the guards seized up and dropped to the floor.  
"Go! Now!" Artemis shouted, and the 4 of them ran for the door.  
"What about the guards?" Holly asked.  
"Leave them, we don't have time" Artemis replied as Butler smashed down the door. Soon, they were all inside and ready to begin.

"Is that all you brought with you?" Holly asked Opal as they began their descent down a flight of stairs. Both Artemis and Butler seemed to have something of a vague knowledge of the layout inside Solenheim, but Artemis had allowed Butler to take point so that he could hang back and keep Holly and Opal separate.  
"Oh I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. If we ever have a need to use them, you'll know. For now, they stay my secret.  
"We're only going down one more flight of stairs and through a corridor, I doubt very much that we'll need anything else you have with you" Artemis said. "Besides, if we run into anyone, we have Butler. There's a reason I sent him upfront instead of me."  
Soon they had exited the staircase, and were well on the way to the Frequency generator room. All they had to do was walk to the end of the corridor they were on, so naturally it was at this point that two technicians appeared. Artemis, Holly and Opal ducked down a side corridor, but Butler was left to face them. They both turned pale faced, neither knowing exactly what to do with the giant bodyguard stood over them. Using their hesitancy to their advantage, Butler grabbed both of them and banged their heads together, knocking them out.  
"It's safe to come out now." Butler said, knowing the other 3 had hidden themselves. "We're almost there."  
They traversed the rest of the corridor without any issues, reaching the large door at the end. Artemis took point and tried to open the door, but it was firmly locked.  
"Looks like you're on point again Butler" Holly said, drawing her Neutrino just in case. It paid for one of them to have a gun out at least, should they encounter a large volume of resistance. Butler gave her a short nod, and walked over to the door. He took a few seconds looking for a weak spot, then stood back and kicked it off its hinges. Almost immediately the one worker, sat at his computer, span around, alerted by the noise. When he saw everyone entering he pulled his handgun from under his desk, but he was too late to stop Butler from grabbing his hand, snapping the gun in half. The worker screamed as a few of his fingers snapped along with it. Butler then hit him square in the face, knocking him out, as much to shut him up as to incapacitate him.  
"Right everyone" Artemis said, "Time to set to work."

 _ **THE COUNTDOWN TO THE END HAS BEGUN...**_


	17. SIGNAL

**We're nearing the end of the journey, but that doesn't mean there isn't still time for a few more twists and turns...**

Holly had never seen so many consoles. Whatever they did at Solenheim, it was something far too high tech for her. Foaly would have loved it here, as Artemis was now. She watched him swivel round each and every command platform, pressing buttons and pulling levers. He was in his element, sending command after command into the control system. A loud beep or click would sound out every now and again, just to remind them that they were indeed getting somewhere. Butler was stood guarding the door, whilst Opal was just sat in the corner, looking on impatiently.  
"Anything I can help with?" Holly asked. She thought she might aswell offer if it sped things up. The sooner they got rid of Opal, the better.  
"Actually" He replied, spinning a knob with far more force than was actually needed, "There is. If you go to the console on the far right hand side, whenever you see a blue square appear on the screen, hit the yellow 'A' button."  
Holly walked over to her appointed console. There was so much going on that she didn't know where she would have begun, but with Artemis' specific instructions, she focused only on what she needed to- the screen, and the yellow button. The screen was currently showing a set of black, wavy lines, so she stood patiently. Seconds seemed to crawl past until, finally, a large turquoise square appeared between the lines. She slammed her hand down on the button, and it disappeared.  
"How long do I get to hit the button?" Holly asked, though her eyes were still firmly on the screen.  
"About 1 second" Artemis replied.  
"What is she even doing?" Opal asked, itching to get involved.  
"Regulating coolant for the reactor core" Artemis replied without even taking a breath.  
"Hang on" Holly said. "Reactor core?"  
"Yes Holly, reactor core. This Radar station is powered by a combination of geo-thermal and Nuclear power. Or for the dish we're going to be using, purely Nuclear, and I'd rather the entire system didn't overheat."  
"Oh good, just when I thought this couldn't get any riskier, you decide to tell me we're playing with Nuclear power."  
"Just a bit longer now. All I have to do is break the command seal... Which I've just done. We have control of the dish."  
"Thank Frond" Opal said, "Get on with it will you, I want these samples."  
"Do remember, Opal, that this is merely to stop our residences being turned to ash. As of yet, we don't actually know where the samples are." Artemis said. His hand hovered over the keyboard as he searched his mind for the correct co-ordinates. He may have a lot of knowledge stored inside his memory, but with a few seconds of careful mental navigation, he had them.  
"Artemis, we have a problem."  
"What is it Butler?"  
"They've discovered the bodies, someone has sounded the alarm. We're going to have company really soon."  
"But how?" Holly asked. "I can't hear any alarms?"  
"That's the point" Opal said. "They're not going to alert us to the fact they know we're here. It's a silent alarm you idiot."  
"What did you call me? Go on, say it again."  
"You two, please" Artemis said. "You can argue all you want later. I just need a few minutes for the co-ordinates to load up."  
"We've got hostiles" Butler said, squaring up. "There's a good few of them too."  
"I know what we can do" Holly said, begrudgingly asking- well, commanding- Opal to take over the coolant regulation. She moved to the doorway, armed spread wide. A large haze began to emanate from her body, filling the entire area infront of her. The 'Mirror Barrier' was rarely used by most fairies due to its crude nature, low efficiency and short time span, but it was one of Holly's favourites from her days at the academy. Anybody that entered the haze, human or fairy, would become severely disoriented, to the point where they were incapable of regular movement. Indeed, as two guards entered the room, they became incredibly unbalanced, swaying around the room. One of them fell to the floor whilst the other stumbled into Butler, who gave him a quick right hook to the jaw. He then took the unconscious body and slammed him, head first, into the downed guard's chest, snapping a few ribs and knocking them both out. As the haze cleared, he pulled out his gun and put 3 rounds into the nearest gas pipe, blocking the route into the room completely. Now they could get on with it.

If Artemis was ever going to milk a moment, now was the time. He watched the countdown reduce in number with an unhealthy interest whilst everyone else fought off the oncoming storm outside. Now, with the storm nothing more than a light breeze, he decided to pull out a pair of his favourite sunglasses, straightened out his suit jacket, and turned to face the crowd.  
"Humans and Fairies" He began. He couldn't particularly see out of the glasses, but that was beside the point right now. "In exactly 5 second from the moment I finish speaking, the radar dish directly outside this room will broadcast a signal that will cancel out the one being sent to our many residences. Then we can find the samples."  
He could see everyone mentally counting down the 5 seconds from when he stopped speaking. As soon as they all hit zero, there was a loud creaking sound as the radar dish behind them changed direction for the first time in a few years.  
"That's only one dish" Opal pointed out. "We have 3 different locations to broadcast to."  
"I'm glad you pointed that out" Artemis said, removing the sunglasses and placing them back into his pocket. "Above us right now is the satellite 'Vaclav V', a very powerful Russian communications satellite. It usually broadcasts to the Kremlin, but unfortunately for them it's going to be interrupted for a short while by our signal. The satellite will receive the signal, amplify it and send it to all 3 locations around, and under, the globe."  
"How can you be so sure it will do what you want?"  
"Oh Opal, I thought you would have learnt by now. You think, in all that time, I was just hacking into the Radar facility? That was the easy part, took less than 45 seconds. Most of the time was taken up using the facility to hack into the satellite."  
"Bit overkill" Holly muttered jokingly. At least Butler seemed to appreciate it, even if he didn't laugh. Suddenly, there was an almighty crunching sound from above. Everyone froze, but looked up in time to see the entire roof slowly begin to tear off before their very eyes...

"This wasn't part of the plan" Artemis said softly to himself and the first half of the entire ceiling structure came off. Holly could see a helicopter above them, connected to the roof by a set of Carbon nanofibre wires. That was Fairy technology, not human.  
"OK everyone" Butler said, taking charge. He picked up a chair and threw it through a window. "Everyone out, now." He picked Artemis up and herded everyone else towards the broken window. Opal was first through, followed by Holly and then the Butler/Fowl combination. When Holly regained her senses, she realised they were in a large courtyard. Unfortunately, they weren't alone. They really weren't alone...


	18. An Old Enemy

If you wanted a good definition of outnumbered, this was probably it. Holly could count at least 12 robots surrounding the 4 of them, but at that moment, she knew there very well could be more. Slowly, she stood up so that she was next to Artemis, who was furiously trying to calculate a way out of there. Butler looked ready to fight regardless of the numbers and Opal just looked plain pissed off. But then something weird happened- the robots began to disappear, dissolving into thin air, leaving behind a weird metallic mist. As the mist cleared, Holly began to make out someone else infront of them, standing on a raised platform, staring down at them all.  
"No" She said in disbelief. "You're supposed to be dead."  
"You'd be amazed how many people have said that to me" Chriton Salt replied, folding his arms so that Holly could get a good look at his diamond studded leather jacket."You'd be slightly less amazed at the number of those people who are still alive. I'll give you a clue, it's zero." He took in all of their expressions, or lack of one in Butler's case, and smiled widely. "You can drop the look of shock, I know at least one of you knew I was still alive. Wouldn't be any need to guess who that would be, would there?"  
"We found your remains inside the wrecked apartment building. It was a 100% match, they were your remains. Nobody survived that explosion."  
"Oh you are correct Holly, nobody survived that explosion at all. Probably good that I wasn't in it then, wasn't it? Believe it or not, Opal Koboi is not the only person who knows how to make a clone."  
"And a clone would have exactly the same DNA structure as the original" Artemis said, filling the gap. "Blow up the apartment block, plant a clone."  
"Yes. Of course, I still had to lead everyone into the building, so we made do with a concussion bomb to start with. Knocked everyone flat out instantly, destroyed communications, the works. Then it was a simple case of plant the real bomb and get the hell out of there."  
"How sophisticated. Why?"  
"Why else do you fake your own death but to escape someone? If you could not tell by all of these wondrous robots surrounding you, I was on very good terms with a certain Pixie. Infact, you could probably call me her primary informant within the LEP."  
"I thought Ramon Stone had that title" Holly said callously. Chriton took a step backwards involuntarily.  
"Ramon Stone is dead Holly, and I am not!" He snapped. "The only good Ramon Stone ever did was fly a bloody helicopter. He spent most of his time either smashed off his face or too high to remember his own name, so don't go saying like he was better than me. He flew the chopper, yeah, but all the information Flower Kevoor ever got came from me. Unfortunately IA cottoned on to the fact some people were selling information and launched an investigation. They found Stone out first, naturally, because he was too stupid to cover his own tracks, and that idiot led them straight to the rest of us."  
Holly gave him a pointed look, so he elaborated.  
"You may think that you're part of a perfect little organisation, Holly, but there are whole groups of people who sell out secrets on a regular basis, reaching all the way to the very top. The LEP is as corrupt as you can get. But, it would seem, IA is the one place everyone is completely straight laced. So myself and Flower devised a plan to fake my death so I could still be of use to her as a spy."  
"And now she's gone" Artemis said, "And you get to pick up her empire. You have everything that she left behind."  
"Oh I have more than that- I have freedom. I am now answerable to nobody, and I will take this world by storm. What better place to start than with some of the most powerful radiocative material this world has ever seen?"  
"And so you drew us here" Artemis proclaimed, "Your only competition, to the one place you knew we would be. You knew that placing the bombs where you did and giving us that time span would mean the only place we could come to stop it was here. How very well thought out."  
"Don't flatter yourself" Salt replied. "There were no bombs. There never were. But you're right, this is the only place you could have come, and so you have, right into the centre of the hornet's nest. And my word, I am so the hornet in this situation."  
"Well" Artemis said, "At least you didn't join the convention of idiots that stared into the Energy Matrix. At least I know that you're just naturally deluded."  
"You know Artemis, you like to think that you're so clever. You have an answer, or a remark for everything, and yet here we are. You talk well, but you are no closer to those samples." Salt stopped himself, a smile creeping onto his face. "I say that, but you might be closer than you think. It's a shame you'll never quite get there." Salt retreated to the back of the platform, his long leather jacket blowing in the wind, almost making it look like a cape.  
"Finish them" He commanded, and the robots advanced.

All of the robots are linked. It was one of the side effects of making them sentient, a telepathic connection that cannot be broken. And, having that sense of togetherness, all 5 robots fired at exactly the same time. It didn't matter who you were out of the 4 humans and fairies stuck in the middle. Wherever you went, a laser bolt was heading your way. So, with no other option, Holly did the only thing she could. She created a forcefield. Each of the laser bolts bounced harmlessly away from them, one getting so close to Salt that he had to duck out of the way. As soon as the forcefield dissipated, Opal whipped out a pistol and put 3 blasts of energy into the nearest droid, which rolled around a bit before collapsing to the floor.  
"Yeah" Opal spat. "Nobody is screwing with this bitch today."  
Artemis, meanwhile, had already begun to sprint towards another of the robots. It tried to move out of his way, but he caught it with the side of his elbow, sending it spinning straight into the path of Butler, who tore off its head.  
"2 down, 3 to go" Artemis said to Holly, just as the robots let off another barrage of shots. Opal tried to pick off another one, but one of the laser bolts struck the gun right out of her hand. She turned around just in time to see the robot right beside her. It swung out an arm, karate chopping her half way across the courtyard. Holly jumped onto the robot, trying to wrestle it to the floor, but it was too strong. To make things worse, another of the robots was now firing at her.  
"Over here!" Holly heard Opal shout. She managed to force the droid to spin around in time for Opal to snap the robot's gun arm off at the hinges. Holly grabbed it as it fell, and fired 3 shots into the distant, offending droid. Opal then broke the robot's backplate, tearing out half the wiring and sending it into meltdown. Holly jumped off and threw the droid's arm to the nearby Pixie, who practically executed the failing machinery. That just left one robot, which was currently being baited by Artemis. He was luring it backwards across the courtyard, towards a waiting Butler.  
"Come on, that's it" Artemis said, dodging a shot, but the sudden movement coupled by the fact he was walking backwards caused him to stumble. Sensing an opportunity, he robot accelerated sharply, then grabbed hold of Artemis and threw him into a pile of crates. Butler, realising that their plan wasn't going to work, emerged from his hiding place. The droid saw him, but not in time to stop Butler quite literally putting his foot through it. That was all of the droids finished.

Chriton Salt began clapping. It was a slow, deliberated clap that made them all turn around to face him.  
"Well done" He said. "I am impressed. Although, to be fair, you've fought those robots before and won, so it wasn't anything too special." He reached behind him, into a small holder at the back of the platform, and pulled out a giant, handheld railgun.  
"Now let's see how you fare against something you haven't fought before." He said, once the device had reached full charge. The small blue disc attached to the device was fired out at a remarkable speed, going right between Holly and Opal, detonating on contact with the floor behind them. The two fairies were thrown high into the air- fortunately Butler was there to catch the both of them, but they were severely disoriented. Salt began to load another disc, content that he had them cornered. However, in the mass of broken crates, Artemis began to regain his senses. There, nestled in what was far too much Styrofoam for his liking, was another railgun, already loaded. Salt must have been boxing them all up for transport. Cautiously, he picked it up. It was heavy, cumbersome. It was too bulky to be used in battle, which meant there was only one reason you would use it. Eradication. Salt's gun was now fully loaded, and he knew they were all trapped. He carefully took aim, and let out a small laugh of triumph. So, without taking another second to think, Artemis pulled the trigger. The disc flew straight past Salt, hitting the wall behind him. It erupted into a great fireball than completely enveloped the elf. The platform, weakened by the blast, collapsed, and came crashing down to the floor below, where it exploded again. Once the smoke had cleared, there was nothing left of Chriton Salt.

 **#KABOOM**


	19. Trap Fit For A Genius

**It's been a while, but I'm back! And we're just about to hit the climax. So strap in, it's going to be one hell of a ride.**

In the wreckage of Solenheim, just the 4 of them remained. The entire facility had been evacuated, so they were the last people left. Artemis walked over to meet the other 3, looking very Lara Croft with the railgun strapped to his back- albeit, a rather more upper class Lara Croft. He had ditched the suit jacket and his tie, and there was a large graze on the side of his head where he had hit the floor, covered in blood and dirt. His hair was a mess, and his trousers were ripped and torn. Being thrown into those crates had taken its toll, and Holly almost didn't recognise him anymore.  
"I'm glad that's over with" He said, rejoining the group.  
"I want those samples" Opal said, reverting to her mode of impatience. "And you killed the only guy who knows where they are."  
"Well we know they're here on Solenheim" Holly offered. Opal looked sceptical, but Artemis nodded along in agreement.  
"The unwavering Chriton Salt let on more than he should have" Artemis said. "And now we know that he brought the samples with him, probably because he didn't trust anyone to look after them. They're in Solenheim, but where?" He turned to Holly. "Where would you hide them?"  
"Me?" Holly asked. She knew Artemis already had an answer, so whatever she said was likely wrong anyway. "Panic room? Would be locked up nice and safe."  
"Good argument" He replied. "Solenheim doesn't have a Panic Room."  
"How about a containment room then?" Opal suggested. "I know this place has one of them."  
"Very good Opal" Artemis replied. "There is no place stronger than a containment room, and I have no doubt Chriton Salt would want the samples as safely stored away as possible."  
"So where is it, and why is it there?"  
Artemis racked his brain for a few seconds. "It's incase someone becomes exposed to the Plutonium beam array. And this way."

For once, it was Artemis leading the way, not Butler. Butler was still stationed in-between both Holly and Opal, lest they decide to finally fight each other. It took a while to navigate the maze of corridors and passageways; Holly herself had no idea where they were going, but Artemis seemed to know what he was doing. He was a man on a mission.  
"We're here" He finally said, stopping infront of a large, circular, vault-like door. Artemis tried it out of habit, but it was of course locked. Even Holly could have told him that.  
"I would stand back if I were you guys" He said, turning to everyone else.  
"Why, can't Butler knock down the door?" Holly asked.  
"There are some limitations, even for me" Butler replied. Sure, it did look a formidable door, but Holly still believed Butler could get through it. Instead, Artemis pulled the railgun off his back, and loaded one of the discs. He looked so uncomfortable handling it, Holly thought, yet somehow so adept. She watched as the side of the gun lit up, a sign of it charging.  
"Oh, hurry up" Opal complained. Holly had to fight back the urge to slap her.  
"Patience" Artemis replied. The gun went green, and Artemis kneeled down, aiming for the very centre of the door. His finger tightened around the trigger, and in the less than the time of his next heartbeat, the door was nothing but rubble. Holly, Opal and Butler rushed into the room, leaving Artemis to follow afterwards. They were all trying to find those samples.  
"Try containment hatch 5" Artemis said. Sure enough, they were in there.  
"That was fast" Holly said, eyeing Artemis to see if there was anything he was hiding.  
"Who cares" Opal said, "They're here, and they will be mine."  
"Hang on a second" Holly said, and went to move closer to Opal. But she wasn't going anywhere- none of them were. "What's going on?" She asked Artemis.  
"Don't ask me" He replied. "Ask the Pixie."  
"Oh" Opal said. "This is just the beginning of the end of your lives."

Holly hadn't seen the small remote Opal had been holding. Now she vaguely knew what was happening, it was all too clear the remote was actually a compact containment field generator of some kind. She had used them in the LEP to capture and transport criminals.  
"Well this was easy" Opal said, pacing infront of them. "I thought it would be far harder to con you all into allowing me to join, especially you Artemis. Surely, surely you should have known I would not take anything but those samples for myself? I am still grateful that you allowed me to tag along, because now I not only get what is mine, but I also get to rid myself of the annoying thorns that constantly plague me." She walked over to Holly, enjoying the new found power she had. "I could have completely frozen you all in this containment field, you know. Yet here I am, allowing you to speak your final words before I kill you all. Holly, anything to say?"  
"Go to Hell" Holly said fiercely. She was not going to give Opal the satisfaction.  
"I wouldn't worry, friend" Opal replied, bringing a hand up to the elf's face. Holly tried to pull back, but couldn't because of the field. "I'm already going to Hell. I'm just going to drag the rest of the world along with me."  
Next she turned to Butler, who had a face of stone and eyes of glass. "What about you big man? Got anything to say?" Opal asked, but Butler said nothing. "Fine."  
Then she moved to Artemis. She lingered there for a few seconds before opening her mouth.  
"Surely the great Artemis Fowl must have something to say?"  
"Yes, I do" He replied. "Thank you."  
Opal stared at him in confusion, and Artemis just smiled.  
"Gotcha." Holly had never heard him say that word before.  
"What did you just say?" Opal demanded, a combination of shock and fear on her face. She didn't like where this was heading.  
"I said 'Gotcha'. Because I have, and you know it. I can see it written all over your face, the realisation that you may not have been quite as clever as you anticipated. I can see it in your eyes, the fear. You said it yourself, just now. It was too easy. It really was, because I wanted you to do this. This situation was engineered long before you even thought of it. Every part of it. You really thought I was going to do a deal with you? You really expected me to let you join this expedition when I know exactly what you are like? Right from the moment you put down the phone, this has all been a part of my plan."  
"No..." Opal said, wide eyed and shallow. She tentatively pulled out her gun, but left it wavering at her side. "How could you?"  
"Because I'm clever."  
"But I have you trapped, I have you in my clutches. How?"  
"If you don't believe me, then shoot me. Go on, it'll be easy for someone like you, who kills people without even a second thought."  
Opal brought her gun up, and placed in the centre of Artemis' temple. She curled her finger around the trigger, but she never pulled it. A solitary tear rolled down her cheek as she lowered the gun. "What have you done to me?" Opal begged.  
"I made you think. You thought it would be so easy to just shoot me, but I made you realise that you can't live without me, because if I'm gone, who is going to challenge you? Who is going to push you further? It started off with Foaly, but now that you've met me, he'll never be as good an adversary as I am. I'm going to let you in on a little secret; All of this was a setup. Solenheim is owned by Fowl Industries- it's my own radar station. There were no bombs- there never were, and I didn't even send out a signal. Actually, the method of arming a bomb with a signal is a very localised process, so this would never have been a solution anyway. Poor frequency choice too. Infact, all I did was move the radar dish. The guy who's fingers Butler broke? He lost his hand in Afghanistan. What Butler actually broke was a prosthetic hand. Even Chriton Salt was a part of this."  
"What about Azikh Khan and he crew of crazies?" Holly asked, though she was almost apologetic she interrupted Artemis.  
"OK Khan wasn't a part of this. He was a genuine danger to us, but Opal wasn't there for that part."  
"Chriton Salt was working for you, and yet you killed him" Opal sad shallowly. "And you call me evil."  
"It's what he asked for" Artemis said, but Opal just stared at him. "He asked for closure. I gave it to him. Holly knows how many phone calls I got that day, and one of them was from Chriton Salt. For some reason he decided I was the person he should confess his sins to. The first was actually Butler, telling me all about the meteor fragment at the bottom of the ocean and everything else that you told me. Then Salt called me, and I learnt a great deal about what had been going on." He turned to Holly. "And some of it you need to hear too."  
"What did he tell you?" Opal asked. "What did he say?"

 **Conning a con artist is one hell of a trick, but Artemis may just have pulled it off...**


	20. Confession Of A Dead Man

**A Short Time Before The Start Of Chapter 2:**

"Artemis" Holly shouted. "Your phone is ringing again."  
Artemis rolled into the room, picked his phone up, and walked out again. If Holly had sounded frustrated, it's because she was. Artemis never got two phone calls in quick succession. This was supposed to be their final day, and he was too busy getting phone calls.  
Artemis retreated into his bedroom, so that he wouldn't be disturbed. The caller ID had come up as LEP One, but he knew nobody used that number anymore. He was intrigued.  
"Yes" He answered.  
"Artemis Fowl" The voice on the other end replied. It was low and gravelly, and Artemis heard him clear his throat. "You might not know who is speaking at this very moment, but you know who I am."  
"Enlighten me."  
"My name is Chriton Salt."  
"Salt? Chriton Salt is supposed to be dead. How would a dead man be contacting me?"  
"You say that Artemis, and yet there is no surprise in your voice."  
"I've learnt not to expect people who are assumed to be dead to stay dead, not unless I witness it myself. Besides, this phone runs an automatic voice analyser and it's come up a 100% match. So no, there is no surprise in my voice, but I am wondering why you would feel the need to call me. What could I possibly do for a dead man?"  
"I need you to help me."  
"Why would I help you. Why would I need to help you?" Artemis questioned. He had an idea, but he wanted to hear Salt say it himself. Then he could be sure the plan he was formulating in his head was the right one.  
"Because I've done some terrible things, Artemis. Because I've spent the last year of my life living in a world I did not know was even possible. I want to be able to put things right to everyone that I've affected, and that includes you. I just don't know how."  
"You were working for Flower Kevoor, weren't you?"  
"Yeah, I was... And you figured that out?"  
"Well it wasn't hard. I mean how else would you have affected me? I hadn't even heard of you until we started dealing with Flower Kevoor. So how did she manage to get you under her control? I know Ramon Stone was corrupted by the possibility of power, but you don't seem like the natural type to sell your soul to the devil."  
"Gambling" Salt replied. "I have a massive gambling addiction. I owed money to so many people, I was drowning in debt. Then Flower came along and paid it off. All of it. All she wanted was me to slip her a few secrets here and there, and I thought it was no big deal. But as time went on, it got more and more, and larger secrets too. Then IA came along and she said I had to fake my death. I agreed, but I had no idea the number of people that were going to die there. Now, with her gone, I don't know what to do. I've been hiding in the fear that, if someone finds me, they'll expose me. It's driven me to the edge of my sanity. And then one day someone did notice me, and I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to be caught, I couldn't stand being in prison, so I shot him. I shot him and killed him in cold blood. And I don't know what to do."  
Artemis rubbed his temples. There were a lot of words in Salt's speech, but he at least understood the core message. And his plan could still work.  
"Who did you kill?"  
Artemis heard Salt let out a large sigh. "I killed Trouble Kelp."  
That Artemis had been expecting, but it was still weird to hear Salt say it out loud. Artemis may never have been good friends with Trouble Kelp, but Holly had, and he had dedicated a lot of time to finding out who killed him. Now he knew. It was a hollow victory.  
"I don't even think he knew it was me, I had blacked out windows and everything, but he pulled me over. I knew, if he saw me, it would be over, so I rolled down the window, and shot him- point blank in the chest. I saw the look of horror on his face as his life drained away. He looked me in the eyes Artemis, and all I could see was his question. Why? And I decided then, I can't do this anymore. I need help."  
"Disappearing isn't going to work" Artemis said, "If the people involved are still around. What you need is closure, to have the elements responsible eliminated."  
"But Flower Kevoor is already dead."  
"But who made Flower Kevoor?"  
"Opal Koboi."  
"Precisely. Without Opal Koboi's influence, Flower Kevoor would never have become the Pixie she was. This all stems from her. Take Opal out of the equation, you can have closure. You wanted me to help, well this is what I'm going to do..."


	21. Now I Am God

**Back in the present** **:**

"After that, I called Foaly to tell him my plan. He proceeded to tell me I was crazy and then went along with it. Then, Opal, came your call. I already knew everything, thanks to Butler, but I needed you to believe that you were the one in control. And it worked, because now, here we are."  
"You could be bluffing" Opal said, the grip she had on her gun tightening. "We're in a room, and you are trapped. Words will not destroy me!"  
"No" Artemis replied. "But I will. Our battles have gone too far, too many have been hurt because of us. One of us has to go, and it's not going to be me. This was the part I didn't like about the plan, the finale. Most people think I don't have any emotions, but I'm just good at keeping them in check, unlike you. Only myself, Butler, Foaly and Colonel Scar knew about the plan because I needed it to be real." He looked at Holly again. "I needed Holly to hold the hatred she had of you and use it, because otherwise I know you would have known something was wrong." Artemis took a long pause. "Now it's my turn. Anything to say?"  
But Opal just stood there. Her defiant look was crumbling. She eyed the gun one last time, then brought her head up to face Artemis.  
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you" Artemis said. "I really am. You said once that we would have been perfect together, and we would have. We would have been a psychopathic killing machine and nobody would have been able to stop us. I like to think that's not the person I am now, but then I think of what I'm doing, and maybe I still am? I see how my plan has worked, how I have manipulated everyone into being in this position. Now I am God to everyone here because I control the battlefield. This is my life and these are my choices, choices that decide who lives and who dies purely by my hand. So yes, we still would have been perfect for each other."  
"In another life" Opal said. Then she did something Holly didn't expect. "Thank You."  
Artemis nodded calmly. Opal dropped her gun to the floor, opened her arms out wide. Her breathing increased rapidly, but she remained still.

Then there was a gunshot. Just the one. It tore straight through Opal's back, puncturing her heart and exiting through the front of her chest. She dropped where she stood, killed instantly. The containment field broke, and all Holly could think of doing was running up to Artemis and pulling him into a great embrace. She almost couldn't hold back the tears.  
"It was the right thing to do" Holly said, eventually.  
"I know" Artemis replied quietly, then echoed her words. "It was the right thing to do."

 **When two masterminds go head to head, only one was ever going to come out of it alive. This was the penultimate chapter to the story, which means we have just the one left. I've had a lot of time to look over the final chapter, and I'm still convinced half of you will hate me for it. But it is there and it will stay. Oh the intrigue...**

 **I have almost finished writing Story number 4, titled "Hunt for the Obelisk". If you thought the first 3 stories were explosive, just wait until you see this one, it's off the charts. There are plenty of new characters, and a new antagonist just to shake things up. But that's for later.**


	22. The End Is Just The Beginning

**Here we are, the final chapter. This story has come a long way from start to finish, but we're not quite done yet. There's still time for one last twist...**

Artemis lead Holly outside, hand in hand. Butler had already been out, taking the samples to the waiting car. As far as Holly could tell, they were now in a lead lined, sealed compartment in the boot. At least she wasn't going to get radiation poisoning.  
"What you said to Opal" Holly said to Artemis as they walked, "Was any of it real?"  
"Some" He replied. "The parts about this being my plan all along was real, and Solenheim being my own facility. Chriton Salt's involvement was real too, I'm afraid. The rest was theatre, put on to make Opal feel weak in her final moments. Killing her is one thing, but after everything she's done to us- to you especially- killing her wasn't enough. I had to defeat her too. She had surrendered before she died, and that was all I needed to see."  
"She could have shot you though? She was so close, why didn't she?"  
"She couldn't have shot me if she tried. Remember this is my place, so I had them rig up a static field generator that jammed up her gun before we got here, making it unusable. She was rather predictable in those final moments I have to say. The trick was making her believe that she was the reason the gun wouldn't fire."  
Holly stopped, and Artemis stopped with her. She held station for a few moments before beginning:  
"OK, now it's my turn to make a speech. I told you before, that once we finished here that I'd have something to tell you. Well, this is all over now, so it's my time to get this out in the open."  
"Holly" Artemis said, "You don't have to if you don't want to. We've only just finished now, you can wait."  
"No I can't, because now this is over, we've had our final day together for the foreseeable future, and this cannot wait until we meet again." Artemis gestured for Holly to sit down on the side of the road, where he joined her. He held her hand tight, waiting until she had the courage to finally say it.

"I'm pregnant."

Artemis didn't say anything for a few seconds, and Holly almost dissolved into a mess of worry and guilt, but then he spoke. She never realised quite how calming his voice could be.  
"Pregnant?"  
"Yes, Artemis, I'm pregnant."  
Artemis looked towards the sky. "That shouldn't be possible. You are not in your cycle."  
"You would think so, but it turns out one of the side effects of you bringing me back to life was that you reset my cycle completely. I only found this out whilst Foaly was doing his usual monthly tests a few days ago. I needed to tell you before you left."  
"The wonders of science" Artemis said. "This is really happening, isn't it?"  
Holly had never seen him look so unsure, she wanted to laugh, but all she could manage was a small whimper. "Artemis, I don't know what to do."  
"Right" Artemis said, pulling her closer to him. He practically enveloped her despite his slim body frame. "Holly Coral Short, you are going to do what you always do. You are going to be amazing, and I am going to be by your side every step of the way. Whether it be physically or in spirit, I will always be here, because I love you and I will do anything for you to get you through this, understand?"  
Holly nodded, because she couldn't get the words out. Her face was streaked with tears, but she still managed to get a smile across her face. They stayed like that for a few minutes; Butler must have known something was happening because he didn't bother them. Eventually though, Artemis decided it was time they got up and got out of there.  
"Come on" He said, picking Holly up. She wiped the tears from her face and took in a deep breath. "Let's go home."  
And so they began to walk back to the car, hand in hand, them against the world.

Just how it should be.

 **THE END**

 **What a ride. But as the title to this chapter suggests, the end is just the beginning. Because with 'Hunt For The Obelisk' set 6 months after this, there's a lot that can- and will- happen, especially with this curveball having been thrown into the mix.**

 **I'm taking a month long break now, for several reasons. Namely because I want to finish HFTO and start the 5th story, which has a title but I'm not saying what it is yet. Also I have exams to prepare for and a blog to run, aswell as an actual novel to write. Basically I'm a little busy lol. But be back here on April 25th for the first chapter of HFTO, titled "Troll Hunting".**

 **Until then.**


	23. Hunt For The Obelisk: Preview

**I may not be uploading properly for a little while yet, but did you really think I was going to leave you without a preview of what's in store? Enjoy this little 600ish word introduction to the world of the 'Fairy Retrieval Agency'. If you're wondering how they came about, let me remind you that a lot can happen in the space of 6 months, and not all of it good...**

 _The events of this story take place 6 months after the events of Aquaria Major_

 **CIA Facility, unknown location within California, USA**

"We've got another one!" The loud voice boomed into the room. The voice was followed by a man, sauntering in as if he owned the place. He didn't, but he was, to all intents and purposes, the one in charge.  
"Another one? Seriously?" A woman replied, standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed. "We just got back from a retrieval, and now there's another one? Please, Masek, tell me you're not serious."  
Masek- which was actually his surname, his first name being Jim- laughed, before blowing his long, blonde fringe out of the way of his left eye, where it usually rested.  
"Unfortunately Scarlett, I'm deadly serious. We've got a Troll roaming its way through the Swiss Alps, and if we don't stop it then it might just stumble its way into a ski resort."  
"I heard ski resort!" Another man burst in, almost dragging a woman along with him.  
"And I heard Troll!" The woman chimed in, her voice unusually melodic. The others had come to realise that was genuinely how she spoke.  
"Cable. Jenna." Masek acknowledged. "Good, we're all here then. Troll loose in the Alps."  
"Why can't the LEP take care of this one?" Scarlett asked. "Surely they must have a magma chute in that region."  
"LEP is thin on the ground. If you hadn't realised, we're cleaning up more and more of their problems on the surface. I mean, the whole reason this unit was formed is because the LEP have had drastic cutbacks since the cyber attack that crippled them."  
"Alright Cable, I don't need a bloody history lesson" Scarlett said. Her arms were still crossed. "It would just be nice once in a while if the fairies would come and help us."  
"When do we leave?" Jenna asked, bouncing on her heels.  
Masek looked at his watch. "About 5 minutes ago."  
"Right then" Cable said. "I believe that signals time to kit up and get out there."

Cable was not a big man. He was tall and slim in reality, but the giant suit he had on made him look like a pro weightlifter. Bulked out with lightweight padding and carrying two giant blades on each arm, he was the heavy unit of the four. Masek looked him up and down as they entered a small, enclosed space they had nicknamed 'The Chamber'.  
"Suits you."  
"Thanks" Cable replied, taking his turn to look at Masek's outfit, namely the large pathfinder eyepieces he was wearing. "I could say the same about you."  
"It's time for an adventure!" Jenna shouted excitedly as she jumped into the chamber, followed by Scarlett, who was far less enthusiastic. They were both wearing what could be described as standard kit, though Scarlett was carrying a giant sniper rifle.  
"Remember Scarlett, we're here to capture the Troll, not kill it" Masek said. "I really don't want to have to deal with the paperwork. Or Artemis Fowl for that matter."  
"Nobody wants to deal with Artemis Fowl" Cable joked.  
"Except Scarlett" Jenna said, and Scarlett nearly slapped her. Instead, she simply glared.  
"Alright, that's enough" Masek said. "The longer we're in The Chamber, the closer that Troll gets to the ski resort." He looked up at a computer interface above him. "Computer, do you have the co-ordinates locked?"  
"Co-ordinates have been locked" The electronic voice said back.  
"Good" Masek said. "Beam!"  
Everyone in the chamber began to glow, before looking as if they were almost dissolving, melting away. And then they were gone, and The Chamber was empty.

 **And this is just the beginning. Not only will our heroes have to deal with a conspiracy reaching to the very top of the LEP, but there are complications for everyone at every turn. Artemis and Holly will be tested like never before- professionally and personally- as they fight not only to save Haven from a threat like no other, but also to save themselves from the forces trying desperately to tear them apart.**

 **The fate of the world above and below ground hangs in the balance, but Artemis and Holly can no longer just worry about themselves, for their involvement in attempting to uncover the conspiracy may just endanger the lives of the people they love the most. This could well end up being one step too far for them all, but whatever happens their lives, and their relationship, will be changed forever.**


End file.
